据悉，在Google宣布正在研发通过语音来进行搜索内容的几天之后，微软就公布了关于Photo2Search的消息。微软表示，通过图片与文本结合搜索的方式，可以得到更加准确的搜索结果。在上周，微软表示它目前正研究一种可以通过手机拍摄的图片来进行网络搜索的方式。
据介绍，这不是一个普通的输入搜索的请求，用户可以把他们想搜索东西的图片email给微软。微软把这个新功能称作Photo2Search，它可以返回包含图片中所存在物体信息的网页或者那些包含类似物体图片的网站。而微软是第一家允许通过图片来进行网络搜索的公司，而目前很多搜索引擎是允许用户通过发送手机短信来进行查询。
据称，在五月中旬，微软的研究人员谢兴将会在日本奈良举行的移动数据管理会议上公布其研究的论文。
Microsoft Shoots for Photo Search
Microsoft this week revealed that it is at work on a way to search the Internet using photos captured by cell phone cameras.
So rather than typing in an Internet search query, someone can e-mail Microsoft a photo of what they're searching for. Photo2Search, as Microsoft calls the nascent feature, returns Web pages either with information about the objects in the photo, or sites that contain similar images.
Microsoft is the latest example of how search engines continuously try to expand Internet search's utility, whether by using cell phone text messages to make inquiries as most search engines now allow, or using photos as is the case at Microsoft.
News of Photo2Search comes a few days after Google, which views Microsoft as a chief rival, learned it received a patent for an alternative way to search the Internet using spoken words, rather than written text.
（第三媒体 2006－04－20）
