Search by Image Now Reads Labels: Photograph a Shelf Tag, Get the Exact Product
Two days ago you could search with a photo of a thing. Now you can search with a photo of a label. Point your phone at a shelf tag in a store, and the exact product it belongs to comes back first — because Opensolr read the tag, instead of just recognising that it was one.
01 The photo that started it
A shelf tag on an interior door in a DIY store: a spec table, a model code, an article number, a barcode. Before today, this picture became Label, Document, Paper and found nothing useful. Now it becomes USA LEMN G1-88 E · 6048297, and the first result is that door.
02 Recognise it, or read it
Every photo still goes through the visual step first: Opensolr picks the words that describe what is in the picture, from a vocabulary that grew from 21,000 to 51,000 concepts today — species, breeds, dishes, product categories. When those words say the picture is a piece of text, it takes the second path and reads it.
03 What changes on your search page
- The page tells you what it did. Under the search box: Showing results for your image: sled dog, mushing… for a picture of a thing, Read from your image: USA LEMN G1-88 E · 6048297 for a label. It shows exactly what was read, misreads included, so you always know why the results are what they are. Long lists fold behind a show all.
- Labels search exact, automatically. An article number is something to match, not something to understand, so a label search runs with the AI toggle off — and the toggle goes back to your own setting on the next thing you type.
- Bigger photos. The upload limit is now 20 MB, enough for a full-size shot from a modern camera. HEIC from iPhones is accepted.
- Nothing to switch on. Every hosted search page has it already. Facets, filters, AI Hints and everything else keep working on top of it.