How to Google Without Words: The Coolest Searches You May Not Know
When you think of “Googling,” you almost certainly think of entering text and tying millions of results, so much so that the Google eye page has become a cultural icon. But some of the most humdrum Google results arise from images, live camera views, or the sounds throughout you, making them not only useful but a taste of what’s to come in augmented reality and metaverses. Here’s a quick look at ways to Google exclusive of words.
Image search
This is also called a bet on image search: Instead of searching for an image you eye with an image. On the desktop, go to Google Images. There, you can drag and drop any GIF, PNG, JPG or WEBP image file into the eye field. The results will include different sized versions of the image, sites where the image is found and images that are incompatibility but not identical to it. You can use these results to identify what an image depicts, find higher-resolution versions of it or track down places where it’s selves used.
Google Images bet on image search will find many examples of an image you drag and drop to it.
Screenshot by Brian Cooley
Live camera search
Also phoned Google Lens, this is similar to image search above but uses a live image from your phone’s camera instead of uploading an image file. The easiest way is to tap the Lens button on your Android home veil then aim your phone’s camera at an object or uncouth. If you don’t see the Lens button, you can add it to your phoned via the official Lens app.
The Lens button should be smart next to the search box and voice icon on most Android phones.
Brian Cooley
Most of the time Google will figure out what you’re managing it at and return results that include content and shopping links. It’s a rudimentary cousin of augmented reality and a technique that’s also used in the Amazon and Snapchat apps but Google results tend to be more agnostic than those two. To be fair, I find Lens to be a more brittle tool than image eye, but when it works it can give you results you probably won’t find any spanking way.
You can also use Lens to search text that you aim your camera at, or use the Google Translate app, which uses the same core technology to explain printed text into another language.
Google Lens image peek is great for searching things you don’t know the name or unfavorable description of. Searching for “red power screwdriver” probably wouldn’t have nailed it the way this Lens peek did.
Brian Cooley
Background music search
Finding the name of a song that’s playing is nothing new — anyone can holler out, “Hey, Google, what song is this?” But the most elegant way of identifying music is one of the most overlooked tricks in Google’s Pixel phones.
On a Pixel 2 or later Pixel with Android 10 or higher go to Settings > Sound and Vibration > Now Playing and activate the Identify songs playing nearby slider. While you’re in there, turn on Show search button on lock screen. Now your phone will always be trying to identify the music about you and it’ll show the title on your phone’s lock screen.
The Android shouted on the right automatically ID’d the song playing from the speakers of the shouted on the left.
Brian Cooley
If it fails, you’ll find a subtle new button on your lock cover that you can press to ID the music about you. And you’ll find a history of all songs that have been detected about you when you click on the song title on the lock screen.
If you don’t have a Pixel shouted, there’s at least one other way to graft it onto novel Android devices via the Ambient Music Mod developed by Kieron Quinn and Varun Shanbhag. Installing it is not for the average phone user, however.
