Hi. Today we are making available to everyone a technology that until now has only been in the hands of a few large companies: visual search.

Zappen Visual SearchThe way it works is simple. Scan a logo, a business card, or a sign and connect to the website of your choice. Use it for billboards. Use it for art galleries. Use it for protest signs and organizing in public spaces. We’re not telling you what to do with it. We’re just putting it out there. Fully functional. You can download the app and upload images and links directly to our website, or you can download the source code and build your own app.

Read press release.

There’s no charge. And it works. Tested to 100,000 images (we’ll get to 5 million by year end).

Why are we giving this technology away? Because we think it’s good business, for one thing. We want to be leaders in a space for developers who wish to implement their own solutions, rather than paying for access to a closed, proprietary API. Also because it’s the right thing to do.

At Yes Exactly we’ve been lucky to work with a lot of cutting-edge technologies: cryptocurrency, augmented reality, and image recognition, to name a few. It’s always exciting when you’re able to build something nobody else has built before, and have it work. The great thing about free and open source software (FOSS) is that it makes that process much more accessible, because you are building on the work of others. Without Pastec / ORB, OpenCV, and the visual words algorithm, there would be no Zappen.

We’re integrating Zappen into new apps and projects, and making it available as a value-added service offering to clients.  Zappen functionality has been licensed for the popular Discogs record trading app, and we’ve added into Beerious? — our latest standalone app. We’re taking every opportunity to talk about this new technology and let people know it’s out there. But today I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Erik Amlee, Rob Sletten, Nick D’Amico, Brendon Rule and Kirsten Stoller of Discogs for helping us get here.

Zappen is happening. Get in touch if you’d like to learn more.