Google announced at Google I/O a few weeks ago support for 3D images and AR within search — that feature is now live. Many searchers are able to search for objects such as [shark], [lion], [panda], [alligator] and so on and see those 3D objects in search and then project them into their environments with AR.
How it works. Open your mobile browser on Android or iPhone and search for those types of terms. If you scroll down and see an option for “View in 3D” then you can click on that to load the object. Then you can click on the AR option to see the object in your location through your mobile phone’s camera.
What it looks like. Here are some quick videos of this in action, as I posted on Twitter:
How do I get 3D images into Google? A few weeks ago we posted a slide showing 3D markup you can potentially add to your images to help them show up as 3D images in mobile search.
Here is that slide again:
Why we care. Numerous apps already support AR to enable consumers to see how furniture and other objects look in their homes or to see what different eyeglasses or makeup would look on them. This shows how Google can start to enable those kinds of capabilities in the SERP for commercial queries. Over the past several months, Google has been dropping hints that image search is something SEOs, webmasters, developers and content producers should pay attention to. It is a good way for searchers to discover new content and information and can be helpful in not just driving eye-balls but potentially even conversions. Some of these new features may help with those efforts. Plus, this is a lot of fun to play with and geek out on.
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.