Visibility and images are active processes steeped in our anthropological DNA and not just empirical states or static qualities of appearance of meaning or representation.
We are after all, a visual being. Visual medias growing influence can be seen in the most popular apps we download (think SnapChat, Vine, Instagram) and use regularly.
As such, it makes sense the future of search and leveraging paid search in particular is vastly important to the likes of Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Google Goggles got me started thinking about image search when launched back in October 2010 and how it could be used to connect advertisers to users.
There of course is Google image search with four ways to find a match with Drag and Drop, Upload an Image, Copy Paste the image url, or Right-clicking on an image on the web when using a firefox or chrome extension for the assist.
There is Google Product Listing Ads, showing images of products to purchase and certainly a step closer to paid search with images but not by images themselves just yet.
Launched in June 2013 Google now has in beta Image ad extensions for paid search. Still not fully baked, you can search for images and a select few beta testers are displaying ads, however how many ads and what triggers the ads is still in question based on user intent.
Fast forward to Pintrest last month and their dive into promoting pins. A much better and direct approach to potential user intent based on previous user history and a huge win for monetizing the Pintrest platform.
I see this as an opportunity for companies with large SKU’s in their inventory and small companies alike with niche products to win big.
Image search as a significant step for users finding companies wares and speeding up the user buying cycle of awareness, interest, learning, shopping to the eventual purchase.
Matching those images to “exact” as a specific sku (think Procter & Gamble Commercial Swiffer Duster Refills, 10/BX SKU-PAS93 or broad as in category (think mops) will be the next step in paid search.