Ed’s note: Peggy Anne Salz, who you know has been doing our executive interviews for a couple of months, will now be contributing on mobile search and discovery for our site. This post below follows Google’s acquisition of Neven Vision.
That was the plan Neven Vision‘s CTO and founder, Hartmut Neven, shared with me at the beginning of the year. As he put it, “You step into a store, see a DVD display, take a picture with the phone and then get the trailer delivered to your phone. You don’t have to think about it, you just get it - and that’s a feature that really supports a mobile lifestyle.” In this scenario, Neven Vision uploads content such as ringtones, games and promotions into its recognition servers. There a relationship is created between the images the brands would like recognized, such as logos and products, and the content brands want to reward consumers. Follow this through and you see why the acquisition is a wise move for Google. When users send in the images they have captured via MMS the object is recognized and relevant content is pushed to the phone.  It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. Neven Vision’s i-Scout, a technology that enables camera phones to “see” and recognize visual imagery, makes it possible. In fact, it has already been tested and proven in a little-known, little-publicized ad campaign in October 2005 with Coke in Germany.  The campaign encouraged German youth to snap photos of the CokeFridge logo with their mobile phones to win mobile content and prizes. Since then, Neven told me, the company sharpened its focus on verticals such as comparison shopping and entertainment, launching a line of client software companions designed to perform specific search tasks. Another ace in Google’s hand now that it owns the company.
But keep in mind Google/Neven Vision isn’t the only game in town. Microsoft is quietly crafting its Photo2Search, which aims to use images to act as the search query, with no text input - period. GeoVector is also making progress, teaming up Japan’s Mapion to provide local search for mobile phones in Japan. The scheme is to enable “point and search,” allowing users to point at buildings etc…and get instant information. As John Ellenby, president of GeoVector, said in a press statement at the time: “Soon users will point their mobile phones at restaurants to get reviews, point at billboards to shop at the advertiser’s website, point at a movie poster to buy tickets, or play a game by pointing at their friends.”
Sensationalism aside, Google’s acquisition points to a much bigger and more important trend than visual search: effective mobile advertising and engaging mobile campaigns. Google has the capabilities mix to deliver a lucrative combination of visual search and targeted advertising. (And we can likely expect price comparison to play a role given Google’s track record with Froogle, for example). But who (besides Google & Co.) stands to benefit from the union between camerphone search and advertising? Sure, brands would see increased reach and possibly customer loyalty and operators would get MMS revenues. But the real value is in the customer data Google would (again) collect and likely not share.
Related: Google Buys Mobile Photo Recognition Software Company Neven Vision