Being devoted PPC nerds here at The Location Station, we were thrilled to have the chance to chat with the #1 most influential PPC expert in the world and all around lovely human, Purna Virji. Purna is the Senior PPC Training Manager at Microsoft in the Bing Ads team and for well over a decade she’s been living, breathing and dreaming PPC, SEO and Voice Search. 5 Questions You Can Answer After Listening To This Episode On Visual Search With Purna Virji: 1. What is the difference between AR, VR & MR? 2. How are these technologies already being used by businesses and what are the future possibilities? 3. Why is it so difficult for Purna to choose lounge room furniture? 4. Does visual search mean the end of keywords? 5. Dad Joke: What did one mint say to the other mint? Being devoted PPC nerds here at The Location Station, we were thrilled to have the chance to chat with the #1 most influential PPC expert in the world and all around lovely human, Purna Virji. Purna is the Senior PPC Training Manager at Microsoft in the Bing Ads team and for well over a decade she’s been living, breathing and dreaming PPC, SEO and Voice Search. She speaks at industry leading events like MozCon and SMX Advanced as well writing for Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch. She may not be able to knit scarves very fast but she sure impressed us with her knowledge and enthusiasm in the realm of visual search. INTERLUDE! If you've just discovered Vicinity Marketing, below is a short video about who we are and what we do. If you just came for the article, you can simply skip past the video and keep reading :) .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Video production by our friends at Thirty3South Films in Newcastle What’s Happening With Visual Search Technologies Today? While visual search isn’t necessarily a new concept, the machine learning and image recognition technologies being applied to visual search right now are mind-blowing! Since Google Search by Image in 2009 and apps like CamFind in 2013, we’ve been able to snap or upload a picture of something and through visual search find out what it is, where we can find it as well as other similar images. More recent visual search technologies have been taking this even further and here’s the guys who are doing it best: Seeing AI Another Microsoft invention and definitely the most amazingly practical use of image recognition we’ve seen so far, Seeing AI is an app that describes images and scenarios to the user. Check out this inspiring video of Saqib Shaikh, the blind developer who created this incredible tool to help him “see” what was going on around him. Pinterest Their new visual search tool lets you zoom in on Pins to find out more about specific items within an image. The great thing is that you can use this tool with an image found anywhere online, just Pin the image to one of your boards. CaptionBot Microsoft’s CaptionBot is a tool that combines AI technologies such as image recognition and emotion reading to describe any image. While it is still learning and can make mistakes, it's still pretty amazing and improving quickly! Slyce Using advanced image recognition technology to select products and purchase information, Slyce software is being used by a hoard of retailers in the US including Toys R Us & Urban Outfitters. Sephora & Snapchat There are plenty of companies using facial recognition, but these two are up there with the most successful. If you don’t know what Snapchat Filters/Lenses are then… I don’t know what to say… did you hear how we can post letters through the computer now? Don’t be disheartened if you’ve never come across the Sephora Virtual Artist app, which lets users virtually “try on” makeup.
Being devoted PPC nerds here at The Location Station, we were thrilled to have the chance to chat with the #1 most influential PPC expert in the world and all around lovely human, Purna Virji. Purna is the Senior PPC Training Manager at Microsoft in the Bing Ads team and for well over a decade she’s been living, breathing and dreaming PPC, SEO and Voice Search.
5 Questions You Can Answer After Listening To This Episode On Visual Search With Purna Virji:
1. What is the difference between AR, VR & MR?
2. How are these technologies already being used by businesses and what are the future possibilities?
3. Why is it so difficult for Purna to choose lounge room furniture?
4. Does visual search mean the end of keywords?
5. Dad Joke: What did one mint say to the other mint?
Being devoted PPC nerds here at The Location Station, we were thrilled to have the chance to chat with the #1 most influential PPC expert in the world and all around lovely human, Purna Virji.
Purna is the Senior PPC Training Manager at Microsoft in the Bing Ads team and for well over a decade she’s been living, breathing and dreaming PPC, SEO and Voice Search. She speaks at industry leading events like MozCon and SMX Advanced as well writing for Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch.
She may not be able to knit scarves very fast but she sure impressed us with her knowledge and enthusiasm in the realm of visual search.
INTERLUDE! If you've just discovered Vicinity Marketing, below is a short video about who we are and what we do. If you just came for the article, you can simply skip past the video and keep reading :)
.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }
Video production by our friends at Thirty3South Films in Newcastle
What’s Happening With Visual Search Technologies Today?
While visual search isn’t necessarily a new concept, the machine learning and image recognition technologies being applied to visual search right now are mind-blowing!
Since Google Search by Image in 2009 and apps like CamFind in 2013, we’ve been able to snap or upload a picture of something and through visual search find out what it is, where we can find it as well as other similar images.
More recent visual search technologies have been taking this even further and here’s the guys who are doing it best:
Seeing AI
Another Microsoft invention and definitely the most amazingly practical use of image recognition we’ve seen so far, Seeing AI is an app that describes images and scenarios to the user. Check out this inspiring video of Saqib Shaikh, the blind developer who created this incredible tool to help him “see” what was going on around him.
Pinterest
Being devoted PPC nerds here at The Location Station, we were thrilled to have the chance to chat with the #1 most influential PPC expert in the world and all around lovely human, Purna Virji. Purna is the Senior PPC Training Manager at Microsoft in the Bing Ads team and for well over a decade she’s been living, breathing and dreaming PPC, SEO and Voice Search.
Being devoted PPC nerds here at The Location Station, we were thrilled to have the chance to chat with the #1 most influential PPC expert in the world and all around lovely human, Purna Virji.
Purna is the Senior PPC Training Manager at Microsoft in the Bing Ads team and for well over a decade she’s been living, breathing and dreaming PPC, SEO and Voice Search. She speaks at industry leading events like MozCon and SMX Advanced as well writing for Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch.
She may not be able to knit scarves very fast but she sure impressed us with her knowledge and enthusiasm in the realm of visual search.
INTERLUDE! If you’ve just discovered Vicinity Marketing, below is a short video about who we are and what we do. If you just came for the article, you can simply skip past the video and keep reading
While visual search isn’t necessarily a new concept, the machine learning and image recognition technologies being applied to visual search right now are mind-blowing!
Since Google Search by Image in 2009 and apps like CamFind in 2013, we’ve been able to snap or upload a picture of something and through visual search find out what it is, where we can find it as well as other similar images.
More recent visual search technologies have been taking this even further and here’s the guys who are doing it best:
Another Microsoft invention and definitely the most amazingly practical use of image recognition we’ve seen so far, Seeing AI is an app that describes images and scenarios to the user. Check out this inspiring video of Saqib Shaikh, the blind developer who created this incredible tool to help him “see” what was going on around him.
Their new visual search tool lets you zoom in on Pins to find out more about specific items within an image. The great thing is that you can use this tool with an image found anywhere online, just Pin the image to one of your boards.
Microsoft’s CaptionBot is a tool that combines AI technologies such as image recognition and emotion reading to describe any image. While it is still learning and can make mistakes, it’s still pretty amazing and improving quickly!
Using advanced image recognition technology to select products and purchase information, Slyce software is being used by a hoard of retailers in the US including Toys R Us & Urban Outfitters.
There are plenty of companies using facial recognition, but these two are up there with the most successful. If you don’t know what Snapchat Filters/Lenses are then… I don’t know what to say… did you hear how we can post letters through the computer now?
Don’t be disheartened if you’ve never come across the Sephora Virtual Artist app, which lets users virtually “try on” makeup. Even if these apps aren’t for everyone, the facial recognition technologies used are seriously impressive. I certainly had a lot of fun with them.
It turns out we’ve been using the acronym MR wrong for hundreds of years, because it actually means Mixed Reality.
Don’t feel like a dummy if you can’t tell them apart. VR, AR & MR are very similar, albeit with some key differences:
Virtual Reality, long inspired and predicted by science fiction has today become quite the norm. Oculus Rift is around half the price of an iPhone and you can even create a VR experience using just a cardboard Coke box.
Essentially, VR is a closed environment where you are fully immersed in another location (real or fiction) and you can’t see your actual surroundings.
Augmented Reality uses our real environment but integrates it with a digital element, like sound or graphics. It is basically Pokémon Go, but don’t let that turn you off! It’s an awesome technology that can be utilised in so many different contexts, including marketing.
Mixed Reality is the coolest of all the realities — even actual reality! An extension of AR, MR technologies like Microsoft’s Hololens merge virtual with reality further than VR, enabling the user to actually interact with the virtual world through gestures and voice commands.
You don’t have to shell out for a Hololens, Slyce or create a Mixed Reality app to be involved with these new technologies. The truth is that smaller businesses have never been in a better position to take advantage of what the big players are doing with their tech.
What’s Purna’s top tip for businesses wanting to cash in without splashing out?
Take better pictures.
“90% of consumers agree that the image is the most important purchase decision making factor.”
By making your landing pages visually appealing with lots of relevant, great quality images, you’re going to draw in potential customers in two ways:
This is the traditional method of someone typing in what they want and having relevant information and images shown to them. Even with the expansive growth of visual search, keywords aren’t going anywhere just yet.
“People are 80% more likely to engage with content that has relevant images.”
Also, don’t forget your SEO best practices, they’re still as important as ever! Optimise your ALT tags, descriptions, everything. The key with keywords is to make sure your image is properly described in the title.
Search engines are smarter than you think and they won’t be fooled when you label your picture of a spade in the dirt as “Landscaping in Sydney”. In other words, call a spade a spade.
Take advantage of image recognition by using good quality images that would be easy for an AI machine to understand and lead the searcher to you. Don’t be afraid to get your images out there on all available platforms like Pinterest and social media.
To find out more about today’s guest Purna Virji, follow her on Twitter and connect with her on LinkedIn.
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