I Learned How to Search by Image

As a well-traveled and well-practiced “explorer” of the World Wide Web, I assumed that I knew everything there was to know about finding my way around in “cyberspace.” Thus it was with considerable shock and disorientation that I learned, somewhat recently, of the possibility of exploring the web in an entirely new way. Google’s Search by Image feature, to put it bluntly, promises to do for the web search experience what Providence Grays shortstop Arthur Irwin did to the baseball glove: revolutionize it, or, at least, add some comfortable padding.

Because this innovation pertains so directly to our own experience as “tech-savvy” 21st-century sports enthusiasts, I wanted to take a few minutes to highlight its possibilities. As with so many great innovations, I find that it reveals truths that we knew all along, but could not have fully embraced — until now.