MANILA, APRIL 1, 2013 – Imagine being able to search for a certain scent without using words to describe it and find it. Unimaginable? Well, Google made it possible. At least, for April Fools’ Day.
Google Nose is the “flagship olfactory knowledge feature enabling users to search for smells”. Google describes it as:
“Google NoseBETA leverages new and existing technologies to offer the sharpest olfactory experience available:
Street Sniff vehicles have inhaled and indexed millions of atmospheric miles.
Android Ambient Odor Detection collects smells via the world’s most pungent mobile operating system. SMELLCD™ 1.8+ high-resolution compatible for precise and controlled odors.”
Clicking on the “Try Google Nose Beta” button on its landing site would produce a random search term such as “campfire” which is then described by the Google Aromabase as “Charcoal, toasty smores, July”. The option to smell and share the scent is also available on the search page.
Clicking on the “smell” button produces a pop-up which prompts users to "Bring your nose as close as you can to the screen and press Enter." A “transmitting scent” bar appears on the stage. Google then instructs the user to “Bring your nose as close as you can to the screen and press Enter”.
“When you’re wary of your query,” the feature includes a SafeSearch and boasts a 15 million scentibyte database of smells from around the world.
Although this might be an April Fools’ Day prank, a masterpiece by the giant search engine, this writer swears on her Google Nose that she actually got a whiff of campfire smoke and charcoal. The toasty smores were, however, nowhere to be found.
Were you convinced?
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