Google announced it is now rolling out the Google Lens button within Google Image search results. Google Lens, which was introduced in May 2017, is a visual search tool to help people learn more about images and what they are visually looking at.
Adding this tool to image search allows users to learn more about the images they clicked on within Google Image search. Google said “Starting today, when you see something in an image that you want to know more about, like a landmark in a travel photo or wallpaper in a stylish room, you can use Lens to explore within the image.”
Here is a GIF of it in action within image search:
Google Lens has been a part of Google Assistant and Google Photos for some time and is a great feature within the Pixel phone as well.
How do I see Google Lens in image search? After you view an image, you should see an icon square Google Lens icon in the image, as illustrated above in the GIF. Personally, I do not yet see it, so it may still be rolling out.
What if I do not see it yet? Don’t worry, I don’t see it yet either and I am in New York. Google said “Lens in Images is now live on the mobile web for people in the U.S. searching in English, and will soon be rolled out to other countries, languages and Google Images locations.”
Why is this important? This can lead to more ways for searchers to find more information about objects within images that they want to learn more about.
Do SEOs need to consider anything? There doesn’t appear to be any special schema or markup that SEOs need to add to take advantage of ranking better for Google Lens. Google Lens is just a new search feature that was added to Google Image search. One would assume that typical Google Image search SEO tips would suffice here.
About The Author
Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land’s News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.