A discussion posted by Ric Skinner, a fellow active linkedin member in GIS motivated me to bring up this topic. Yesterday, as I was browsing, I ended up at the ‘Google Goggles’ page and realized that my wish/dream has finally come true. I wished for a ‘Goggles’ type product during a discussion on a hiking trip with my friends. I am a big outdoor person and I always have wondered if I can take a picture, using my cell (smart, of course) phone, of a plant/animal species or a terrain or a rock, then load it in a search engine to learn more about it instantaneously. Well, Goggles has arrived. Though it couldn’t satisfy my type of search, given its infancy, it is an excellent start.
Also, discussion on the topic of image search pushes me into another one. My experience portfolio spans across different industries like renewable energy, health, economy, environmental, logistics, and few more. There are numerous state, federal, county level, private, non-profit organizations that supply data in each of these industries. I always had to search for data using different data collection strategies depending upon the industry. Although there are GIS data resources out there, I am sure they are not that robust. It would be more appropriate, if ESRI or any other organization provide an exclusive, centralized, free GIS data search engine. Is there already one that exists and that I can bookmark? Or yet to come? Who can complete my equation?
Image search = Google Goggles; GIS data search = ???? ‘Geoggles’ ?
