Facebook Enables Users To Do Visual Search Towards Furniture Products

Facebook has acquired a startup called GrokStyle to develop its AI technologies that aim to help users to do visual search towards furniture products via a phone’s camera.

During its operation, GrokStyle focused on the visual search to help its consumers to save more time to find their products in need, such as a unique table or a second-to-none chair. If you used to describe any item by typing a chain of text, you can now capture a photo of the product you want to purchase instead. GrokStyle’s app will analyze the image, detect the taken items, and search for the product online that meets your demands most.

Facebook hasn’t said anything on the price of this acquisition, as well as revealed its plan to apply the visual search technology. However, it also shows that the social network is trying to make improvements on its search functions towards the Marketplace platform. In other words, Facebook users will have more choices when posting or looking for certain ads such as the furniture sale program.

In addition, Facebook will assumingly leverage this technology to bring more customers to its retail advertisers. Users just need to upload photos, and the social network will help them search for suitable suppliers.

As per GrokStyle, the startup hasn’t offered a lot of information on the acquisition. In 2018, it posted a notice saying that its website would be “moving on as a team”; however, it didn’t mention Facebook.

While Facebook is acquiring GrokStyle, Google has been developing its visual search-based app called Google Lens. This app also enables users to search for items online via a phone’s camera.