Subj : Google Lens can now automatically save your visual searches
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Fri Mar 08 2024 14:15:06

Google Lens can now automatically save your visual searches

Date:
Fri, 08 Mar 2024 14:11:40 +0000

Description:
Google Lens just got a handy upgrade that will automatically save the 
searches you do with it, but you need to opt-in.

FULL STORY
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Google is rolling out an update for its Lens camera searching tool that 
automatically saves a user's visual search history for reference at a later 
date; think of it like the browsing history option in Chrome but for Lens. 

As 9to5Google reports, this new feature only lets you find visual search 
history within the Google app on your phone, and it wont automatically save 
searches done with more recent tools like the rather nifty Circle to Search . 

For the uninitiated, Google Lens has long been an easy way to point your 
Android phones camera at an object and trigger a Google search for it. All 
you need to do is find the square-ish icon in the camera option and let the 
image scan. Googles machine-learning algorithms will then attempt to identify 
the object youve highlighted and return search results for it, or at least as 
close as it can get to what youre viewing. 

In practice, Lens works rather well though there are limitations  it cant, or 
wont, find people, which is probably good in terms of privacy, and it doesn't 
always get the identification right. But thats why the ability to save 
searches may be quite handy. If Lens hasnt quite worked on, say, a type of 
chair youve pointed it at, you can refer to that search at a later date when 
you happen to run into your chair-expert friend. 

One thing to bear in mind is that Lens scans an object and then fires it and 
the relevant data into the cloud, so the search history wont be saved on the 
device. Instead, youll need to visit myactivity.google.com to access it. Its 
also an opt-in feature, meaning youll need to access the Include Visual 
Search History option to ensure your Lens searches are saved  dont assume 
Google will do this automatically. Youll find the option to do this under 
Data & Privacy and then in the Web & App Activity section. 

All in all, this might sound like a small update, and it is. But such tweaks 
help make using machine learning-powered tools more useful and thus prepare 
us for a future where AI features and options will be more prevalent in some 
of the best phones . 

While I dont welcome an age of smart robots enslaving us all, Im open to 
having handy AI tools that make getting information a whole lot easier. Im 
also waiting to see what Apple could do with generative AI when it comes to 
the iPhone 16 . You might also like The Google Pixel 9 could fix the Pixel 8s 
biggest flaw Tired of your iPhone? Apple is about to make it much easier to 
switch to Android The Samsung Galaxy S25 is tipped to drop Qualcomm chips and 
go all-in on Exynos



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/phones/google-lens-can-now-automatically-save-your-v
isual-searches


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