I wouldn’t say that I use it terribly often, but Google Goggles is an amazing little app. I take a picture of something — almost anything — and it will recognize what it is. If it’s a product, I can then do a quick online search for reviews and pricing information. eBay wants to do the same thing with its mobile apps.

eBay CEO John Donahoe announced at the Innovate eBay new developer conference that the company plans on rolling out image recognition technology in is mobile offerings before the end of the year. Once again, the core concept mirrors that of Google Goggles. You’re out in the world, you take a picture of something you want, and the eBay app starts searching through its online marketplace for similar products that you can bid on and buy.

Since this is eBay, the image search will be geared more toward buying products and related products. As such, snapping pictures of clothing and furniture may work a heck of a lot better (assuming they’ve got the algorithm nailed down) than with Google Goggles. The latter doesn’t recognize apparel all that well, for instance.

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Google is one step closer to reading your mind. They revealed several new features for mobile yesterday that will make searching easier, faster and more predictive to the point it feels like they’re probing your brain.

Voice Search

People are searching for answers even when they step away from their computers. Google notes that in the past two years, mobile search traffic has grown five-fold, so they’ve introduced Voice Search. The feature will free you from having to type using the tiny keys on your phone. There’s a little microphone that shows up in the search bar to help you search by voice. Google’s English Voice Search system has a bank of 230 billion words from real queries, which can accurately recognize the phrases people are likely to say. In the past year, Google says Voice Search traffic has grown six-fold, and every time you speak your words get added to the system. Google has also added voice search on the desktop for Chrome users. If you’re using Chrome, you’ll start to see a little microphone in every Google search box. Simply click the microphone, and you can speak your search. Which means that when you open your mouth to search something, Google is right there. Listening.

Search by Image

Taking the idea of Google Goggles one step further, you will be able to search by image on desktop. Next to the microphone on images.google.com, you’ll also see a little camera for the new Search by Image feature. If you click the camera, you can upload any picture and ask Google to figure out what it is, whether it’s an intriguing landmark or mysterious meme. Basically, whenever you’re stumped and trying to recognize something, you just whip out your phone, take a photo and Google will tell you what it is. Google knows everything.

Instant Pages

Because searching requires so much time and effort, Google has rolled out Instant Pages, which will prerender results of a page Google thinks you’re going to click.  According to the company, Google Instant, which gave us search results while we typed, saves us between two and five seconds on a search. But once you picked a result and clicked it, you still have to wait an estimated five seconds for the page to load. They want to shorten that agonizing wait time with Instant Pages. Basically, after Google Instant predicts which page you’re going to click as you’re performing a search, Google will preload (cache) that page in the background. It preloads all the images, video, javascript, etc., so that when you do click the link everything is there. Waiting for you. Google knows your next move. Google is watching you. Well, maybe not. Though if you’re lounging in your backyard, Google Earth will be watching you. Google wants to be there whenever you search anything, and become so embedded in your thought process it’s only natural to go there whenever you’re curious about something. The potential for even more predictive ads is astounding.

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