Useful plant Identification Surprise!

[BradinMichigan]

I use Google photos to backup my phone photos with. Much to my surprise, Google lens is pretty darn good at identifying plants! Take a picture with your phone back it up to Google photos and hit the little lens button at the bottom of the app. You will then see Google Lens analyzing the picture and bring up a number of possibilities with links to compare possible matches. My photos backup automatically, so they were there within seconds of taking a picture. It's a little quirky, but has been super useful and can point me in the right direction.For a new app it's pretty amazing and has been more accurate than some of the plant apps I have tried. Definitely worth checking out for those who want to grow their knowledge of plants!

 

[alex1992ccc]

I find Google to be disturbingly invasive of privacy. I notice I get advertisements of things I only mentioned out loud in the presence of my phone.. I don't appreciate being spied on, or them turning my personal life into some sort of survey.

 

[BradinMichigan]

I find Google to be disturbingly invasive of privacy. I notice I get advertisements of things I only mentioned out loud in the presence of my phone.. I don't appreciate being spied on, or them turning my personal life into some sort of survey.[/QUOT login to the privacy settings turn your web and app activity off and everything else and Google will not be collecting information on you. If you don't want the functionality of a phone then do that and use Android forum to complain about privacy not gardening.

 

[Beverly]

I find Google to be disturbingly invasive of privacy.

Add to that Facebook. I joined reluctantly, i can't remember why. After the first couple of hours i could not wait to get out. It took me 2 weeks to unsubscribe. And how about Windows? They think they know what i want to do so they do it for me and make unwanted messes out of just about everything because they are always wrong. It is a form of brainwashing and it is down right creepy. Google has some functions like "delete messages forever" and "filter messages to be directed to delete", but guess what neither functions work and the same spam keeps coming.

 

[BradinMichigan]

Well ladies and gentlemen there is always the option to use a flip phone, the library and snail mail. Marketers rule the world not the government you take the good you take the bad and way out which one you want. My post was intended to be helpful to people who are trying to learn about plant identification.

And to be honest as far as Google tracking me and Target marketing me I really don't care. I have nothing to hide and I'm not going to buy products that I don't need.. do I care that Google knows I was on a trip and stopped gas stations restaurants or whatever no I really don't. If you think about it anything electronic your credit cards or debit cards your GPS everybody knows what you're doing. In the end doesn't really matter not to me I'm not doing anything illegal, I'm not a dirtbag, I'm not a terrorist so if Google the government or the banks are using my location information or what I've searched for good for them I hope I'm entertaining enough.

So let's focus on what this forum is really about learning about plants and nature and the wonderful world that we live in!

 

[alp]

A difficult one to all this one. There are pros and cons. As everything is driven by the desire to relieve us of our money. Can't really say it is totally above board. Amazon, ebays and google always track what I have googled and throw up items for me TO BUY! Of course, I won't buy them. But many a gullible people will be conditioned and fleeced. The world is full of followers and that's why after David Beckham, nearly everyone has a dirty tattoo on their body .. Some even stupid enough to tattoo the white parts of their eyes.

People's privacy should be respected.

 

[greenmowers.org]

People's privacy should be respected.

I entirely agree.

 

[Becky]

FWIW you can also do a reverse image search through Google - go to the image search, then click on the camera icon. You can either link to an image that is already online, or upload one from your computer. It will then search online for the image, and if it can't find the original it will show you visually similar images. It's a pretty useful feature!

 

[alp]

Wonder if I could use it with my laptop?

 

[BradinMichigan]

Wonder if I could use it with my laptop?

Yes! The image search you can upload photos and search them

 

[Sheal]

Google isn't compatible with my computer so I lose out on this great idea. I don't suppose Bing has got anything like it yet?

 

[Becky]

Google isn't compatible with my computer so I lose out on this great idea. I don't suppose Bing has got anything like it yet?

Yep, Bing has a reverse image search. When you're in the image search click on the camera icon (it will pop up with Search by Image if you hover your mouse over it) and then you have the options to paste a URL or upload an image.

 

[Sheal]

Thank you Becky! I'll give it a whirl.

 

[Sheal]

Thanks again @Becky - it worked! I used one of my own images but it's now made me wonder if that will be used again in the future. Also, if I were to copyright my pictures whether that would make a difference?

 

[Becky]

Thanks again @Becky - it worked! I used one of my own images but it's now made me wonder if that will be used again in the future. Also, if I were to copyright my pictures whether that would make a difference?

Do you mean used by Bing? I'm not sure to be honest, but I had always assumed it was only stored temporarily for the purposes of the search.