So I just tried out the Google Goggles app on my iPhone, walking around the Gramercy Park neighborhood. It's pretty damn amazing.
For those that don't know, Google Goggles enables you to take photos of objects, barcodes, and even some buildings and get information from Google about that item. The last bit seemed a bit too good to be true, so I tried it out around my workplace in Gramercy Park.
I took pics of the Flatiron Building, the Met Life building, the armory, Baruch College, and the Shake Shack. I surprisingly got positive hits on 3 out of the five, even taking pretty crap pictures like the one to the right.
The Google app gives you info about where the building is located on Google maps, top hits for information on the web about the building, and other images of the building.
I figure the app must be using GPS data, because no way could Google figure out what building I'm in front of solely based on the pictures I took, which could be of hundreds of other buildings.
Google Goggles also works on product labels, barcodes, wine bottles, artwork, business cards and text. Unfortunately, you can not take a picture of someone and have Google Goggles find out their name or whether they are single or not… yet.
More images from Google Goggles:
Google Goggles is available for free for the iPhone (ios4) and Android phones here.