We’re already very familiar with Facebook’s ability to recognize photos based on the people tagged in them as well as the date and time they were taken and the location they were taken in. But did you know that the social media giant is about to get even more savvy with their recognition algorithms?
Facebook recently announced that their latest technology will be able to help users search for photos without using tags and location check-ins. Instead, the algorithm will be able to pull images from what’s in photos. For example, if you’re trying to recall what that great cocktail looked like that you had a few months back but managed to snap a photo of, you can simply search “cocktail” and the image will appear in the results along with other relevant photos with cocktails.
At the moment, we have no idea how accurate this new feature will be. “Cocktails,” for instance, falls into a the large category of “drinks” — and that means other photos of soda, water, wine etc could come up in results as well.
The other reason for this massive update is to improve their alt text feature. Alt text is beneficial in the SEO world because it gives both users and search engines a better understanding of what the image is about. If you correctly describe an image using your target keywords, there’s a good chance it will appear in Google’s Image Search. Facebook’s alt text is generated automatically, yet at the moment it’s very hacked together. With the new updates, it will be able to fully describe a photo in complete sentences other than descriptor words. This is especially helpful within the visually impaired community.
So what do we make of all this information? Do other tech giants have the same features? Essentially, social platforms are becoming increasingly smarter and faster when it comes to giving users the answers they want. Search engines such as Google and tech giants like Apple also have their own photo-recognition algorithms.
Mark Zuckerberg’s goal to elevate Facebook into a software and hardware giant is all going according to plan, it seems. The CEO has already announced that the Facebook platform uses Lumos, their AI-algorithm, to scan through billions of photos to collect data to make their photo recognition system even more powerful.
It’s safe to say that Image Searches will continue to improve in both social media sites and in search engines. If you’re interesting in making sure your site is optimized for image search, contact our full service Boston SEO company today for a free estimate!