{"id":2892,"date":"2013-08-23T18:25:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T22:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/?p=2892"},"modified":"2013-08-23T18:33:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-23T22:33:49","slug":"can-google-image-search-identify-insects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/can-google-image-search-identify-insects\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Google Image Search Identify Insects?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This morning, shark mega-enthusiast &amp; PhD student David Shiffman (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhySharksMatter\" target=\"_blank\">@WhySharksMatter<\/a>) tweeted<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p>I just uploaded a pic of me with a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23Shark&amp;src=hash\">#Shark<\/a> to Google Image reverse search and it IDENTIFIED THE SPECIES OF SHARK <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/fTpmHP7IVG\">pic.twitter.com\/fTpmHP7IVG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhySharksMatter\/statuses\/370935936919404544\">August 23, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the screen cap image a little larger if you can&#8217;t make it out (click to embiggen further):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ShiffmanStraddlingShark.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-2898\" alt=\"ShiffmanStraddlingShark\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ShiffmanStraddlingShark-500x269.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ShiffmanStraddlingShark-500x269.png 500w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ShiffmanStraddlingShark-300x161.png 300w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ShiffmanStraddlingShark-700x377.png 700w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ShiffmanStraddlingShark.png 1023w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Is reverse Google Image search able to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZivBCPnSTPAnxUjDLnNqFigComnfi-cIbvqmaWB2l6joyJmZNXYyAaVg-6_1BQkprUlBNYLgTznUhToJL-BBo5kfjN9l2ZJ7jD1c17MhpAEl93HfJx_1v1Bj_13AimluoWAr3l1lixZs9hDUUFr9GuSLYtvjirkb-HHpzWg0jrs_11kxzG6kdFeH8DjM5RnWnHye1OL8AefAUNcXXH7w1aXUOLhNXD0vSHLJsMxurIqFJB8wn07xzkK8pvGJ9oFpybixpY0p49MmM2JlJL_1EMHwb6Z54PGFhkx44Av6dOIWuXbTNTM9GWvikUJp3ZdU_1M2uhRm9omLrTGlejocZyAxl3rsH5BMoh8-yMQPCmRCwBEz1d9g30pD5D82-O6KXAiqbBY5Jvac_1rxE1vx_1FBuvEk1M57Hri31MfjBOBmC5xPpGQrMwoTkcd90sJ5wYsYWHSA79PT56plTVc-59zglhIlp-ypmxafuft88RTQqlrA2SWQEZd1gamldyoDP18uOzZRzrumx1LXaT83bi3ST9VaEudf_1ATuuckRMHYsNc3arsPY93R8I8ca9TYih0ja4SvkxahxNAUToDDRpq6eRCvlgdoMyuP_1GRjfPHEWmQqrkJdAUxdH6CfXFkVEKEmY3ivJfGnPlDmyrE8oNIvlGNfjhYCIE0gwi4w8QZyXhB_1xIAx6vHfBQakfZBrqxSwTg0H37aP8s5OXrktSXhR_1pWyu89a1iKqeoaXVQZG5o1nyyzBuuktGorcZnXy10mRcswo08ihraSavfbDZwFNgP6LxxieaGc7iM_1zq6Aje7Q_1aOo-229IFMjU8-XaTc2xiWcyQ_1YfkzDNa8IWSB-w0FqDHYmyQ-SuYrGsXnldHx3R735L9F49OCX8wtZvOsPqjMbHoMYzQHb3iRAn0hxYG3e4MWZk3Pn974Oa7HEemumTXDKdQ5XIB5xo5qrQfvln9Evmu8w0C3zPehQjG248JAqI8kZHLbimQfHo8q90ghR1GtQq8Vb4lvk08NS8rKnkJ1u_12C0V2uPT8zgOzCL0AuQiCadKmiFFjRpm3opB1svVbBH8Ju0x5QnhgbnHQABG8XWHgZs6RrCG-DKQDIWWE22hO7oExmrTR54mQxdDjyiHnPHbJPPxSNlqv1dYhyz-gK5sFx9V271tFanTPGHBG8UcWr5RyoV68Lj9s4ReCFNqu8LAuCwWNmrolF1jxFNqWY9iezQIqltNeCvqhomrYM-CC0PbpaMcnQbO0mj0U3-hjXZdr7Xqo1YlSo1QUoePUvvOAWpXW40AwQFsNgJ4-k5eXDX3vvhhYJw&amp;btnG=Search%20by%20image&amp;hl=en&amp;authuser=0&amp;biw=1280&amp;bih=642\" target=\"_blank\">identify sharks to species<\/a>? Yes, <del>David included the search term &#8220;lemon shark&#8221;<\/del>\u00a0(David just let me know that Google included the text search terms itself&#8230; my mind is blown), but the fact that Google returned &#8220;Best guess for this image: lemon shark&#8221; might imply that they&#8217;re playing around with visual identification services, not just photo comparison. Considering how well reverse image search does at aggregating similar images, how many shark images are online &amp; indexed by Google, and that many of those images are probably tagged with a species name nearby or in the metadata, I think the concept is entirely plausible.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing how insect ID is kind of important to me, I tried it with a few of my insect photos, and got nothing. I even tried improving the odds by using search terms like <del>David<\/del>\u00a0<del>HAL 9000<\/del> Google\u00a0did, and this is all I got:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/can-google-image-search-identify-insects\/euarestatest\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2899\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-2899\" alt=\"euarestatest\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/euarestatest-500x399.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/euarestatest-500x399.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/euarestatest-300x239.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/euarestatest-700x559.jpg 700w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/euarestatest.jpg 785w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I was beginning to get discouraged, but Marianne Alleyne (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cotesia1\" target=\"_blank\">@Cotesia1<\/a>) made a good point: perhaps it was the fact that David was <em>sitting on the shark<\/em> that mattered!<\/p>\n<p>So, I reverse Google Image searched this photo<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/can-google-image-search-identify-insects\/fly-wrangler_20130823\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2900\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-2900\" alt=\"Fly Wrangler_20130823\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Fly-Wrangler_20130823-331x500.jpg\" width=\"331\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Fly-Wrangler_20130823-331x500.jpg 331w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Fly-Wrangler_20130823-198x300.jpg 198w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Fly-Wrangler_20130823-463x700.jpg 463w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Fly-Wrangler_20130823.jpg 530w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 331px) 100vw, 331px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZisQW7x6S-ZyJF0z6SxE1l7fo7XgefrINsWyw-6RRKK0PF8I7IXtfvX3L36yaZ33US0SD8Y9PFNG4j7u3i_1p4QNNpcnemceFG54LUg3V2MroZvxj_1gzoTKuJnTPqkiMw38tzHJVO_1drC5e604leaLK6vFqxPWn2umoC-SADYw9miESHB0iR3QXHgNRfuzuRrEcA42KEPodJKnq0PPV-f2otOHM7ME8E7O0YU1KRy0Ed-Q2MOqQx4j0KxxwfBvh-85XXxHNeNxItdinOyRDfcmE98yV7SGYD4gTrHthnjqVCiR5diIvy2tiWgxU5NVUmdJqsDkJ8QN-e_1BvA6KUrLdOMM9j_1jSktX4k9007N7_1khGyZdHKURm-uqHRwhX1-CLcHbQIdvcNRa3FRIlHNObbF7Nd5suyNesTEgXMy-hyg3laxsDe4uQO0QRwMyJ8dqfEVIV-pM03z0afjGBo_15sjn3cPXWk49lxyYI97j92KIWsYiNyufIPwooz3FexRGWinrXsRt7sZv13FPmDeRyL9idUNRdpz3YEBkKuD2iB-IikD-UwWLxHS8xF2qCnyfQ_1fjy409q24fwh2ZQ90o2Tlr1yyOkceoKGSVq2tIro_1pLkAUynYyIVRi2Ri9GckWn9PonteTCdeyMuR3J0T93l48sG9Op4iOYpuetHnpmzQ-U_1S5Z0dCgkxB4D-HkXBmmnBSKIAg6CbNhZhgBFKpQ930Ea7iSyvQhzUscd0RjNZ_1gk2Eq8EFgS0HxogdflY2IaMgjEP_1dQnSFSmXIeYmiAgAKZI44vVLZ9F-P727Q4779e52md13-DlxcJSerkbF_1nJ8k2LA3S7RCPsWPghy4qu6Bx8rmFpiEn4Jdnny1v_1hc32qW36Ru0PlduownfJpLqYM1yRhFkHxtnYzm4GGckS0PsaQHwKAWk9gPrzr8_1RVm7XbwNZna7_1dg6NawIQaFfvilmzE0TsTfB2WXSmLEtpYSp93pNOSBCEq1fzHpDU7QysIuA1ApFemEAzFapQIFR6js4sAIk4nCiESPODcWzv1nZO60KzUJEx7XhS0O4IUkVd31HefsdXg8vJvM9MycJ_16zsu4R8DzQgEXHGw44uXAfY8Fu8SvDlQLbxxv83C6z_1Yi6m-bj6HlAR4vgVUm-4wmMu2diftVjmc7s0RCD0lpv4lqMwF4sRsMHDju0PiE9lHrlLUkw-8L8u1-_1eKcpGqIbhmV4ZTm3s1yhXN74Z6d20R2yVa9g3Dv8CXbgBerlj1hUeHH29Mu_1HcqIFutozCm0vDY0TYHtl8aXE-hdZAC5rE-YL2m5yKAfv5xIwDxIx6uC6BSI&amp;btnG=Search%20by%20image&amp;hl=en&amp;authuser=0&amp;biw=1280&amp;bih=642\" target=\"_blank\">And it still failed.<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2901\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/can-google-image-search-identify-insects\/flywranglerfail\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2901\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2901\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2901\" alt=\"Apparently Google things this fly wrangler looks like a bride. Not really sure what to make of that...\" src=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FlyWranglerFail-500x420.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FlyWranglerFail-500x420.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FlyWranglerFail-300x252.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FlyWranglerFail-700x588.jpg 700w, http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/FlyWranglerFail.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2901\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apparently Google thinks this fly wrangler looks like a bride. Perhaps their search algorithm could use a little more work after all.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Clearly Google loves sharks and hates flies (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thelabandfield\/status\/371023018220613632\" target=\"_blank\">and passenger pigeons<\/a>). Not cool Google, not cool.<\/p>\n<p>I guess we&#8217;ll just have to stick to other <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biology.ualberta.ca\/bsc\/ejournal\/mylmst_23\/mylmst_23.html\" target=\"_blank\">web-based tools for identifying flies<\/a>\u00a0for a little while longer. Darn.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning, shark mega-enthusiast &amp; PhD student David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) tweeted I just uploaded a pic of me with a #Shark to Google Image reverse search and it IDENTIFIED THE SPECIES OF SHARK pic.twitter.com\/fTpmHP7IVG &mdash; David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) August 23, 2013 Here&#8217;s the screen cap image a little larger if you can&#8217;t make it out <a href='http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/23\/can-google-image-search-identify-insects\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,303],"tags":[598,86,495,493,494],"class_list":["post-2892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insects","category-thumb-twiddling","tag-diptera","tag-fun","tag-insect-identification","tag-internet","tag-web-tools","category-23-id","category-303-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2892"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2908,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892\/revisions\/2908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.biodiversityinfocus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}