Ready, Set, spar! As it turns out, the sparring partners
here are Ebay and Pinterest, who have recently taken-on the in-app,
image-based, mobile search platform by storm. Both Ebay and Pinterest have been
working on adapting machine learning to identify items that can be tagged so
that their respective search features can canvas the web for such or similar
items.
Pinterest introduced its image search tool called Lens, alongside
a “shop the Look” feature, that allows users of the app to search, find and buy
products based on the images or “pins” it searches for. This feature is however
limited to the fashion, food and home décor pins / categories on the Pinterest platform.
While Pinterest started working on this
idea in 2016, it officially rolled out a Beta version of the tool early in 2017
for iOS and Android users.
Fast forward five months and its Ebay’s turn to step-up to
the plate by announcing the planned deployment of its version of the image-based
search functionality on its Ebay app platform. Unlike the Pinterest Lens tool,
however, the Ebay “Image Search” tool, that includes a “Find it on Ebay”
feature, allows users to search and find products in its Ebay store using
pictures and also allows users on other apps to find products on Ebay that are similar
or an exact match with images lifted from outside the Ebay app ecosystem. The
Ebay Image Search feature will be rolled out to both iOS and Android users but
the Find it on Ebay feature will be rolled out to Android users first.
The key differentiation here is that while Pinterest’s
Lens scours numerous sites across the world wide web as it “shops the look” to
find a similar item for sale, Ebay’s Image Seach feature limits the image
searches to the Ebay platform using the “Find it on Ebay” search. Probably the
only other difference is in the naming conventions for the tools in these apps.
If nothing else, at least Pinterest managed to be somewhat innovative with its
naming convention…..what do we say about an image search tool called Image
Search with a feature named “Find it on Ebay”. Its almost as if they weren’t
even trying. Maybe that IS the point. Shrug!
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