SearchResearch Challenge (3/25/25): To search, or to AI? That is the question..
Dan Russell
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
SearchResearch Challenge (3/25/25): To search, or to AI? That is the question...
Looking for an answer?
Online search can often get to an accurate, trustworthy answer quickly. But as you know, it really helps if you know a bit about what works.
One of the major tools has been Search-by-Image, through either Google, Bing, Tineye, or Yandex.
But now multimodal AI systems can analyze an image and tell you the story... or can they?
As a skilled and literate searcher, you should understand the differences. So let's give this Challenge a try to see what works, what doesn't work, and how you can tell the difference.
I was looking for a couple things the other day while traveling through Switzerland. When you try to find out the story of these images, where you able to use "regular" Search-by-Image, or did you use AI image descriptions? If so, what prompt did you use, and how well did it work for you?
1. While traveling in northwest Switzerland, I saw this emblem all over the city I was visiting. Can you tell me what city I was in? Just as importantly, what IS this thing?
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| On a box of chocolates... |
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| Carved into a stone wall |
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| Seen on a parade float |
2. In open green spaces all over Zürich I keep seeing this flower popping up--they're growing everywhere in vast numbers. What is it? Again, how do you know? What search method did you use?
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| A few flowers carpeting the lawn. What are they? |
The point of this week's Challenge is that I've had mixed results with both kinds of image searches. When you do searches like this, what works for you? Can you tell us HOW you got to the correct answer?
Lots more data next week. In the meantime...
Keep searching!
