Google Goggles’ Influential Impact

Typing away on the keyboard she continued to search for some sort of idea or hint of what the answer could possibly be while still on the phone. Hysteria was on the other line. “Try searching for bruising and shaking, Aunt Lucy!” they cried to her. Distraught thoughts of what the ailment could be occupied her mind to the point that she did not want to even try to search anymore. The results from the Internet did not help her calm down with images and ideas of the worst possible conclusions such as cancer or diabetes. The relation between the actual symptoms and the results online were slim to none. She turned her neck slightly to the left and heard the dangling keys opening the door. As her daughter walked in she let out a sigh of relief that she will finally have help to try to figure out what is it that her mother had on the side of her stomach.

            As I sat down next to my mother, I glanced at the pictures of my grandmother’s stomach and had many questions to ask but she could only answered some. My grandmother was almost just as clueless as I was as to how and why she had such a painful mark on her stomach. I immediately told her to go to the doctor’s or hospital but she said the prices were too high for the hospital and the doctor had given little help on what specifically it was. With no degree higher than a high school diploma, I was at a loss as to where to look next. Immediately like any other average person, I turned my attention and questions to Google. Though my mom had done the same, she was not aware of the latest software called Google Goggles. This latest computer software is useful for “searching and retrieving information over a global computer network, for language translation, and for viewing and sharing digital photos” (USPTO Issues Trademark, 2011). Within seconds, I had uploaded the photos my cousin’s were able to retrieve of my grandmother’s side to Google’s search bar and retrieved various helpful results. It was with this clue that we were able to get at least an idea of what the problem was. My grandmother had a common physical condition that occurs with those of an older age. However, the hint of what the condition was would have never been found if not for Google Goggles.  

The newest version of Google goggles 1.1 has evolved to carrying so many more improvements that it has started to become one of the must have android applications. Though it has advanced rapidly to this great influential point it has also come as a great surprise because the older version of Google goggles was not very well known for its lack of reliability on finding useful information in relation to the picture uploaded. In the article, Goggle Goggles starts to get useful published by Newstex when the software first came about in 2009 it would give absurd impractical results when uploading a simple picture of coke. The retrieved results would include images and search results concluding that the coke somehow looked familiar to a person’s face. The newest version however has been recognized to have “better bar code and image recognition” (“Google Goggles Starts to get useful”, 2010). Although the Google Goggles software appears to now have a promising future of being a helpful search tool online, sufficiency problems as well as privacy invasions continue to follow it.

The great improvement that made the difference to improve the Google Goggles software was Plink. Last year in 2010 Google bought Plink, a UK company capable of advancing Google goggles visual search engine sufficiency. As a result, the company has contributed to helping visual searches to where people can take pictures of paintings and the results now include giving the painting’s information. Google Goggles was already able to do this activity but with Plink it made “functionality even better” (“Google buys plink, puts it to work on google goggles”, 2010).

Now when the word “functionality” comes into play the definition becomes vague and misleading as to what has really begun to function better with Google Goggles. Because of Plink’s assistance uploading a picture without having to type something became even easier because it now gave everyone with the Goggles application autofocus optics (“Google buys plink, puts it to work on google goggles”, 2010). That single operating difference was what made paintings as well as landmarks better to interpret and search for the software. Better functionality for everyone was created especially for those on the run and in great need of information fast. For instance, a tourist can take a quick photo of where they are and the software will use the background or whatever else shown in the picture to find related interests such as well-known landmarks in the area. As an android application, it also notifies the user of when there are more facts in interest to the photo while in that area (Google Goggles Android update makes your vacation photos slightly more interesting, 2011). The extra boost Google go from Plink in autofocus not only helped Google but also all consumers because they do not have to pay for the extra gear of picture taking focus.

In addition to using only a picture to find information, Google Googles can now also interpret it by instilling it into a phone’s memory or translating it into any language. By taking a picture of a business card the Goggles can now decipher numbers and save it all as a contact information in the phone (Google, 2009). Another advantage of the application is that it can find out where to get a book for school by simply taking a picture of someone else’s (Google, 2009). With the help of Plink the software can also display the URL thumbnail by the use of a photo of a QR code included in it. What is even more helpful is that along with the upload of information it checks the “credentials against its blacklist of malicious sites” (Google Goggles update brings support for devices without autofocus, 2012). Lastly, when taking a picture of an exceptional amount of words the software can translate the sentences into any language available, useful for both work and times of leisure (Google, 2009). Though Google Goggles has opened a door to an easier and faster way to gain knowledge it may have also opened an even larger door to an invasion of privacy.

Problems of ethics erupt with problems of privacy invasion when Google can have access to what consumers display in pictures for Google Goggles searches. Google, a very well known global search site already collects information from consumers’ basic information on the web as well as the searches they make while logged in to a Google account. Though you can delete the history as suggested in the Goggle goggles informational video it still adds to the argument that Google knows too much about its consumers (Google, 2009). Personalized advertisements accumulate based on a consumer’s searches and when people decide to opt out of the propaganda the results in searches change (Alexander, 2012). The world is more dependent on technology than ever; therefore, quitting regular searches on the Google site would not be an easy task. When Google can no longer save and use the search results a consumer makes because they have opted out of saved history, Google begins to give search results containing YouTube and other products. Slowly but productively Google uses that information instead to “piece together who you are -- what you watch, where you go and what you buy” and with Google Goggles, the way into consumers’ lives is even easier (Harris, 2012). The security aspects of the development in privacy will continue to be a hurdle for Google Goggles to overcome and try to make limits. Google has made a great title globally as a reliable search engine but today as it increases in connection to other sties with this software, it also increases in getting to know its customers more than appreciated.   

This form of online searching has helped create a different direction of not only gaining information but also way of thinking. By no longer having to even type a search Google Goggles along with Google in general has set a new standard in effort to have to things online. The advancement in searches is promising to continue to get easier and faster but whether or not it is for the best will be determined with time in the future.

  

References

Alexander, S. (2012, July 11). Tech q&a: Stop google ads based on your searches. 

Star tribune. Retrieved from Points of View Reference Center database.

Google. (2009, December 6). Google Goggles [Video file]. Retrieved from 

http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#text 

The informational video broadcasted Google Goggles when it first came out with basic information of the basic functions. However it did also mention the functions it is not yet able to decipher and configure.

Google buys plink, puts it to work on google goggles. (2010, April 12).
            Retrieved from ProQuest Research Library Prep database. 

In this article, Google has bought Plink, a U.S. company that has helped add more technologic tools to the Google Goggles application such as the relation between painting to it’s artist. The article points out how Plink has enabled Google Goggles to improve remarkably.

Google goggles android update makes your vacation photos slightly more 

interesting. (2011, September 15). Retrieved from ProQuest Research Library 

Prep database. 

In this article there is much useful information detailing specific functions Google Goggles can do useful of leisure time along with being on vacation.

  

Google goggles starts to get useful, adds text translation. (2010, May 6). 

Retrieved from ProQuest Research Library Prep database. 

In the following article, there is text over the newer generation of Google goggles and how it has evolved though there is hint as to how surprising it is.

Google goggles update brings support for devices without autofocus. (2012,

August 24). Retrieved from ProQuest Research Library Prep database. 

The following article discusses the main difference Google Goggles made in 2010 with autofocus and how it made visual searching much more reliable. The transformation was thus surprising yet promising.

Harris, E. (Writer). (2012, March 1). Google's new privacy policy: What's 

changed and how to minimize what google knows about you [Television 

webisode]. In KDAF. Retrieved from Points of View Reference Center 

database.
Google’s negative side in productive searching is revealed in this article. With its scholarly remarks it also hints at how Google uses many sources to maintain consumers gaining more than necessary information rising issues of privacy.

Uspto issues trademark: Google goggles. (2011, August 31). Retrieved from
            ProQuest Research Library Prep database. 

The remarks of this article reference the updates of the software and how it has formed into a new way of entertainment and helpful tools.