A little over two years ago, Google introduced Search By Image, which essentially brought the mobile Google Goggles functionality to the desktop. To use the feature, you’ve been able to click the camera icon in the search box (from Image Search), and upload a photo or simply drag and drop an image into the search box.
Now, if you’re a Chrome user, things have gotten even easier. Chrome is getting an update, which allows you to right-click on any image and perform a search by image search.
Google has gradually added functionality to Search By Image over the last couple years. Last year, for example, the feature started taking advantage of Google’s Knowledge Graph.
“Instead of treating webpages as strings of letters like ‘dog’ or ‘kitten,’ we can understand the concepts behind these words,” explained Google software engineer Sean O’Malley at the time. “If you search with an image that we’re able to recognize, you may see an extra panel of information along with your normal search results so you can learn more. This could be a biography of a famous person, information about a plant or animal, or much more.”
Also new to Chrome, for Android users, is the ability to swipe horizontally across the top toolbar to switch tabs, drag vertically down from the toolbar to enter into the tab switcher view and drag down from the menu to open the menu and select the item you want.
The new updates will be rolling out over the course of the next several days.