Hey! Hi! You are just a Search query away from your customers.
Yeah, would you deny it? This shows that search is like the doorway to your site.
It is believed that 68% of your online experiences begin with a search engine. I bet it could be an incredible way to reach your audience.
But, we haven’t given a thought about how hard the search used to be before. The evolution of search has a huge history.
How would your group Ask Jeeves, Lycos, or WebCrawler?
They all can be grouped under a single term Search Engines. And, can you accept if I say these terms were once normal names used in households like we use Google today?
Unquestionably, Search has evolved from time to time. From simple search terms to long-tail data-driven queries search has more or less become like a shapeshifter.
And, this consistently changing ecosystem of search is purely a result of changes in user behavior.
So, to know better the future search trends, we must learn what search has in store for us shortly.
Give it a thought. Technological advancements with mobile devices have made a remarkable change to the way users search.
Right from typing their queries, then to voice search the transformation was made possible with the integration of AI into search algorithms.
Alongside, the rise of Visual Search and social media as a search engine has influenced the search landscape a lot.
As a result, search engines are now better able to apprehend the intent behind a query and provide more personalized and appropriate results.
What is Visual search?
Visual search is a resourceful technology that permits users to hunt for information using a picture or uploading an image, without having to type queries like the traditional way.
This is possible by employing profound algorithms to understand the visual content. And, makes it easy for users to get similar or related search results.
Moreover, this is of great help for the retail industry that thrives on the look of a product. Here, rises the need to transform a viewer into a customer by engaging them in the right way.
Thus, no wonder how visual search is becoming more popular.
How Does Visual Search Engage Users?
Using visual search he finds that purchasing of products has been made quicker for global brands.
As per recent surveys, roughly 62% of buyers who show enormous interest in visual search are Gen Z and millennials.
And, about 50% of users are ready to interact online and on social media if there is any shoppable content without inhibition.
What else do we need more than this data to realize the widespread adoption and charm of this technology?
Users of this generation are better willing to utilize visual search over text-based search when it comes to shopping, especially for clothing and furniture.
According to a super interesting insight into Pinterest Lens’ (visual search technology) search data, the images used are classified based on the most sought-after forms of visual search.
Now these usage statistics have made clear the reason why the top brands in the fashion, cosmetics, and home appliances industry quickly adopted this recently mushroomed visual search trend. Who would dare to miss such a fat opportunity and ignore capitalizing on visual search demand?
I wouldn’t miss it.
It also observed that leading fashion brands such as ASOS and the rest have begun implementing proprietary technology into their site properties. They are now allowing their shoppers to snap an item of choice at any place they find it and look for similar items on Asos.com. Compare the price, and quality, and look for color availability before making their purchase.
It has become the most convenient method of driving the growth of an online business across the web efficiently.
The Development of Visual Search
Visual search is much more a complex technology when compared to text-based search. This is because in visual search the image itself is the query.
Search engines are upgrading day by day with an understanding of the image components, which has made the search results more reliable and increased the usage of this technology.
Following the increase in the popularity of voice search over the last few years, visual search has now marked a new beginning.
So, we can now search using our camera, and look for results with any part of an image via expanded reality apps.
As per the report provided by Jumpshot and Moz, visual search is on the climb.
And, 27% of all searches across 10 major properties are carried out for images.
It’s also been studied that more than 600 million searches have been carried out by users on Pinterest using the Lens technology.
Meanwhile, more image results are being returned by Google than ever.
So, does this mean brands and businesses can rely on the support of visual search to gain visibility and touch base with global customers??
How can Brands Sway Visual Search better than Legacy Text?
Let’s find out how users these days are employing visual search, get to know the capability of technology, and how it seems to evolve in the future.
Here are a few manners in which brands can incorporate visual search into their user journey to kindle their users’ interest
- Product finding: Users can hunt for their needed products effortlessly using visual search. The images uploaded by users as queries are processed and analyzed by the visual search engines to present visually similar products in search results. This will allow users to explore an array of products and even find s that they could have missed while making the traditional text-based search.
- Style motivation: When users are searching for clothing, accessories, and home utilities by uploading images the search result comes up with relevant images and this lets users find their needs and as well as stay updated with the novel products as per the growing trends.
- Pictorial bookmarking: Visual search also helps users with bookmarking to a great extent. So, when a user comes across an image of a product that they need or are interested in then they can simply bookmark it for further reference. By using this feature users may revisit and easily This feature allows users to revisit the products they need without having to search for them again and again.
- Compare a shop: With the help of visual search users find it easier to compare similar products, analyze their pros and cons of them, and pick the best. One doesn’t need to read the product description and the specifications to analyze and make an informed choice.
- Augmented reality attempt: The integration of augmented reality (AR) technology enables users to virtually try on products like clothing, household utilities, and cosmetics using their device’s lens. This enticing aspect of visual search enhances the overall shopping experience by boosting users’ confidence and minimizing the fear and myths of uncertainty that always go hand in hand with online shopping.
Growth of social commerce
The growth of social commerce has been fueled by Visual search as it allows to effectively shop within their social media platforms.
As of now several platforms like Pinterest, Instagram., etc. have integrated in them the visual search features, for their users to identify and buy products that are showcased in social media images or posts.
This type of social media shopping smoothens and speeds up the shopping process by reducing the friction that used to exist in the traditional text search method.
Over 50% of US-based social media users have bought their needed products through the social media platform.
Therefore it’s evident that by 2025, social commerce is estimated to double at the rate of $1.2 trillion across the world.
This instant increase in the popularity and easy handling of social commerce has supported several popular brands. And, most of the leading brands have quickly got onto the bandwagon.
The best example of this scenario could be the New Balance. This leading brand globally thrives on Facebook social commerce.
They make complete use of the possibilities to showcase their products and make them quite easily available to their target audience.
The Facebook store of New Balance is based on appropriate visual images and videos that provide insight into the products. The users can source all the product information they need and proceed to get those products through checkout CTAs.
Several other cosmetics brands find social media commerce much more effective and have taken it to the next level by taking the growing visual search trend for granted.
Brands like Minimals, brand specialize in cosmetic and personal care make use of all visual elements in their posts and allow their users to buy products directly through their official social media pages on Facebook or Instagram.
Such measures help with increasing the visibility of brands and also convert views or followers to loyal customers.
So, if you are building a brand that’s focused on long-term success, without any second thoughts try to make the most out of your social commerce opportunities.
What’s the future of visual search?
Visual search is to become prominent and widespread in times to come.
This is a reasonably noticeable prediction which even I can imagine growing on a large scale.
As the visual search is catalyzed by the visual recognition technology it exhibits potential to serve as an accessibility aid.
Image Searcher, developed an app called TapTapSee. This centered on the benefits of visual recognition and voiceover technology. This technological blend helps visually impaired and blind mobile users. Identify objects easily.
Meanwhile, these are purely recognition apps and not search engines as such.
This has made us think, how the two concepts, if formulated in duo, could be of much use to access visual search by visually impaired users in the future.
So, by combining camera-based visual search with recent advances in voice search and natural language processing, a future of search engines with virtual interface-free visual search becomes possible.
A keyword-based search seems to be more easier but give it some thought, visual search would help you grow your brand a bit wider, and present it in a more useful way to your customers than it is now .
Finally, there’s clear potential for the visual search to transform into a full-fledged search phenomenon.
On the other hand, one can’t foresee visual search to wholly replace the text-based traditional search method all-together.
But, for sure as stated above it does opens up a world of novel possibilities. Undoubtedly it will play a huge part in whatever’s to come for search in the future.
The post The Rise of Visual Search: Visual Recognition in Search Engine Technology appeared first on ST Hint.
