Google Goggles -- New feature in free Google app lets you search the web by taking a picture

The free Google Mobile App was already pretty amazing, with the ability to search the web just by speaking into your phone. And early this month they released a new version that includes Google Goggles: a search function that lets you take a photo and then searches the web based on what's in the photo. You can take a photo of a barcode, landmark, product, text, artwork, book, etc., and the app will return information. The help screens say that the app doesn't work very well for items like animals, apparel, or furniture. You can also take a picture of foreign language text, and the app will translate it. In my experience, the barcode feature worked well, but it didn't find a match for many of the objects. Still, I can see the potential. Read more in the New York Times. Note that the app requires autofocus, so only works with the iPhone 4 and 3GS.