Is a picture worth a thousand clicks? You’ve heard of contextual ads triggered by keywords on a Web page. Now, get ready for contextual ads triggered by images on the page. Visual-shopping search engine Like.com is running ads on Facebook that appear to match objects in profile photos.
Notice the ad by Like.com in the lower left for aviator sunglasses in the screen shot shown here, sent to us by TechCrunch reader Luke Bearden? Yup, those look eerily similar to the aviator sunglasses Bearden is wearing in his Facebook photo. Well, at least we know that Like.com’s technology works. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. (Can someone from Like/Riya let us know which one it is in comments?).
But if this indeed is Like’s image-matching engine at work, is it effective targeting? Bearden thought the ad was “creepy.” And, um, he obviously already owns a pair of aviator sunglasses.
He also obviously likes them enough to feature himself wearing a pair on his Facebook page. And maybe he lost those beloved glasses or they broke since the photo was taken. So I’d say the ad is both effective and creepy.
Would you click on it?
Update 6/2/08: Riya/Like founder Munjal Shah got back to us to let us know that, while his company’s technology could do this, in this case it was indeed a coincidence. He writes in an e-mail:
1) This ad is not contextually driven - it was just luck that the sunglasses matched - Facebook’s ad API doesn’t let you access the photo on the page for doing this kind of visual targeting.
2) We do have this visual targeting technology and use it on the Rockyou site (called Likesense), but it is not on Facebook at this time.
3) Other than that I liked the article - it is indicative of the direction we are heading…
(Screen shot courtesy of Luke Bearden).
I personally think this is going to be even more effective than ads triggered by keywords. Images are a lot easier to digest. It destroys language barriers and other obstacles.
@50 Moo…
Their image recognition isn’t sophisticated enough for something this obscure. Currently image recognition is stronger for things like facial recognition and colors, shapes, and textures, but not advanced enough to do what is being claimed here.
Seen that ad on a few dozen profiles, none of which have aviators mentioned or in the photo.
OMG! I can only guess what some of the party pictures I have on my facebook will show. I’m scared.
Muy Bueno.
Maybe he put the picture there after he saw the ad … what, that’s great publicity no ?
So are the ads effective? Is Facebook finally creating some revenue?
picitup.com hardly seems to work like tineye. I searched similar results for an image of Simba from LionKing.
Half of the results had nothing to do with the film, but had the text Simba included in the image descriptions.
ugh. simple fact:
stupid story. obvious water fountain / coffee table talk.
1. techcrunch just wants your chatter on their site.
2. techcrunch probably did this as a stunt for like. publicity.
duh people.
This domain of computing is called Computer Vision , ie, a machine that sees and understands visual scenes and images. So, static image matching is a sub-domain of computer vision. The technology has been deployed successfully in certain industrial applications (automated factory inspection system), medical image (MRI) retrieval applications, but is still to be widely adopted in consumer web applications, such as the example described on this thread. The technology is going to improve over time , ie, becoming more accurate.
Beware of your profile picture… and of your pictures… and on all the keywords that you post on your profile as “preferences”! That is what it means… I did a big cleanup last summer - starting with taking off my wall (to stop friends from posting ridiculously compromising comments that my GM could read in real time…) Good luck to all.
Facebook Ads and Google Ads more good?
Like.com has been doing image search on photos since they launched with celebrity images. I saw their shopping technology on a bunch of fashion blogs (my area of expertise) and most recently on rockyou.com- one photo from every slideshow has the vision tech matching to products (clothing, shoes, watches, etc.) Whether they’re doing this on Facebook, I don’t know. But clearly they have the capability to do it- and scale it- as they do on rockyou photos.
And as far as “would you click if you already have the aviators”? Well, duh. The ad is also for everyone who checks you out. They might think your carefully chosen profile pic is trendy enough to imitate.
I develop applications using similar technology. Believe me, it is getting better and more accurate.
Unbelievable. I have to check out this like.com .
Facebook is cancer.
It is for internet beginners.
Stop using it
To those who see it as a pointless effort to show a sunglasses ad to someone who already owns a pair…The point of the ad isn’t so that the guy will buy another pair, the point is that all the people who’d visit his profile and admire the shades can now buy a pair for themselves.
I was not a believer until I had my own “near-image” experience. See:
http://blogs.sas.com/sasdummy/.....teeth.html.
I just pulled this screenshot from my profile page, check out the ad
http://i50.photobucket.com/alb.....enshot.jpg
This is absolute nonsense. - There is no way you can use any kind of ‘image’ recognition technology on Facebook yet… You can run ads based on text, and maybe he has ‘chilling in my aviators’ as an interest or something - that would make it plausible.
Recently I put ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ into my favourite books, and a series of Hunter S.Thompson tshirt ads kept appearing - there’s plenty of scope for this, but NO image based software. If there was, it would absolutely kick butt…
I saw this article on Digg, it’s almost like you wrote it for the purpose of linkbait without any knowledge of the facts. Have a look at http://www.facebook.com/ads/ and you’ll see the truth.
Also, #27 David Ulevitch - good point.
They do some robust targeting - not to this level. Besides there is usually not much of interest in a profile picture if you think about it.
If you changed your status from dating to engaged, you will get ads targeted around wedding offerings, etc. But that is all based on the profile data.
More on the macro effects of Social Media can be found here:
http://searchenginewatch.com/s.....ge=3629342
Pretty Werid but then again imaginative
why not?
Lets hope for the best for this new innovation.
Facebook use to be only for college students and I really wish that didn’t change. Now it’s cluttered with a bunch of ten year olds posing in bathing suits. Children are growing up way too fast!! This is why the average age to have sex is twelve, so sad =(
What’s so creepy? I think it’s great.
Better than being given viagra ads, or anti-aging products when I’m only 25.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OwnTWZ1-UWY
i would out down to co-incidence…even if contextual image ads are in place, what of it? its really just a natural evolution
its amazing…. i have made my page… its really awesome!