Google Goggles does a good job of marketing itself as the next greatest thing. It gives you the impression that it can take on virtually any challenge and recognize any item, barcode or image. Having tried out the app over an entire week, I have to admit that Google does a pretty amazing job here.
Let me first list the things that Goggles can't possibly recognize: animals, furniture and clothing. These items are way to difficult for an Android app to discern, so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Goggles still boasts some impressive categories of items:
Books and DVD's: Goggles does a perfect job in this category. It takes less than 3 seconds for the app to identify one of these objects. The app was even able to identify books in foreign languages (e.g. Russian). Very impressive!
Landmarks: Great results here, as well. Although it isn't capable of recognizing your generic one-story family home, it definitely won't have a problem identifying the Empire State Building in NYC or the Louvre in Paris. Within a couple of seconds, you get photos and information about any well known landmark around the world.
Logos: Works without any problems with virtually any logo.
Contact Infos (Business Cards): Works great for the most part, but some minor errors can occur. The app has a problem differentiating between small case “e” and “c”. Aside from that, most regular business cards are not sweat for Goggles.
Artwork: This category is absolutely mind boggling! I searched for fairly well known pieces of art in Google Images and then displayed them on my computer's browser. It took the app under 3 seconds every time to correctly identify each artwork with the camera. Goggles was even successful at recognizing one of Michelangelo's sculptures. Simply unbelievable!
Businesses: A total failure! Goggles wasn't able to correctly identify a single business! You would think that a powerful app like this would have no probably recognizing your local corner grocery store, but in reality Goggles failed to identify such major global companies as McDonalds and KFC.
Products: So-so. Goggles only seems to react to expensive and really well known products (e.g. Chanel). Everything else is hit or miss. Washing machines, vacuum cleaners and other home electronics don't come up with any results. This makes Goggles pretty useless in your local supermarket.
Barcodes: Fairly average results. The more expensive the product, the higher the chances that it will get recognized. You can forget about most of your generic supermarket brands. During my test, the app successfully identified perfumes, microwaves and televisions. Totally random!
Texts: Same idea as with the business cards. Mediocre results. Has difficulty recognizing most texts, but managed to translate a user manual from Spanish to English without any problem.
Bottom Line: Despite some of its faults and drawbacks, a pretty useful app that is here to stay on my phone.
bill a
Good prog-QR code listed returns a blank on Market (25/10/10)