Goggles has been an app only avail for the Android phones and we have been wanting it! Sure, there are apps that do a few of the features, but non have the power to pull all of it together like Googles does with their ‘Goggles’.

The feature is in the latest update to the Google’s free universal app. Upon installing it, you get a new camera icon/button between the search text box and the microphone button. Tap this to bring up the camera, which you can use to snap an image of a location, book, CD, sign, etc… and Goggles will look it over and tell you more about it. Does it work? Yes, scary well!

I’ll get into more detail after the below quick overview if your interested in really getting into the magic. Below is a snap I took through the Google app of a picture I have in my office. After the picture is taken, little squares sweep across the screen as Google attempts to recognize bits and pieces of the images.

Within seconds, the Google app came up with the closest guesses it had. In this case it pretty much knew what the image was of.

Tapping the suggested option at the bottom of the screen brings up the usual Google search results page.

When you choose the camera option for the first time, Google runs you through a few details that are important for a new user to understand. The app works in landscape or portrait views.

Since Google has a library of images of anything anyone has posted on the internet, they can recognize a long list of types of objects… and objects. In the case of the Android version, a picture taken of a sign can be translated to another language if your traveling. A great excuse to go overseas to try this out, don’t you think?

While I may say it works like magic, it isn’t actually magic. So, there are a few items that you are highly unlikely to get a hit on.

If you may need to get quick access later to the info on a image you took, the Google app allows you to save it to history.

While the Goggles test of the picture was fun, here is a more realistic use of the app. Snap a quick picture of a book, CD or product. This is a snap I took of a CD case. Almost immediately Goggles came up with multiple options it found that matched what it saw in the image. Note what the boxes are around, the colors and how they match to the findings at the bottom to choose from.

Here is the results Google Goggles gave me when I chose the middle ‘green’ option that matched on all of the text in the image.

I will be trying this on signs on Businesses on my lunch walk. Again, the Android folks have been playing with this for quite a while and report that works very well too. Menus… film times…