Google Lens just earned a permanent spot on the Google Search homepage
Since Google Lens made its debut on mobile in 2017, its capabilities have evolved through features likemultisearch. Lens has also seeped into Chrome, silentlyreplacing the reverse image search option. Since Lens is effectively an extension of Google Search, it seemed like a matter of time before we saw an option to use it from the Search homepage. Now, we have that option, making Lens even more accessible.
VP of Engineering at Google, Rajan Patel, notes that the Google Search homepage doesn’t change very often, so this is a significant development. The inclusion of a Lens shortcut in the Search bar, next to the voice search button is immediately noticeable if you frequently visit the website. Clicking on the button prompts you to drag and drop an image, upload one, or enter a URL for the file. When you hit the Search button, you will see a rather mobile-first results page where you could crop the image to refine the results.
We first sawGoogle test the Lens integrationon the Search homepage in February of this year. Now, the integration seems to be rolling out widely for Search on the web. Google’s image search utility is remarkably similar, finding images visually resembling your search query. However, Lens is slightly more advanced, allowing you to limit the search to a region of the image, analyze for text, translate a foreign language, or find shopping links for pictured products.
You may think Google Image Search is redundant, now that Lens is accessible on the Search homepage. However, the former still accepts text as a query while Lens requires an image to start a search. The new prominent position of the Lens button could introduce many more people to the feature, though.
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