Search giant Google has launched a new version of its Goggles app, which the company explained is aimed at enhancing the camera on Android-based phones. Goggles enables users to take a photo using their phone’s camera, with Google then working in the background to analyse the image.

On its official blog, the company gives the example of going on holiday taking pictures using an Android phone as a camera, then using Goggles to identify landmarks, paintings and other interesting objects in the photos. Photos taken with one’s camera will only be seen by Goggles if the Search from Camera feature is enabled, and the app works on an opt in basis. This can be done by launching Google Goggles once downloaded, and then navigating to Menu > Settings > Search from Camera. Google Goggles 1.6 is available for Android 2.1 and newer devices and is available for download here.

Google Goggles matches images taken with one's cellphone camera with web search results

The next iteration of Goggles is actually a rather exciting development and another step closer to bringing augmented reality to phone cameras, while using one’s phone to bridge real experiences in the world with cloud-based search. We are frequent users of Google’s image search, which is actually very comprehensive, and if that can be incorporated into augmented reality type search, it may well be a worthwhile app to add to one’s Android app arsenal.

Google is not alone in seeking to take online search to the next level though. The Goggles update is also a little reminiscent of an ambition expressed by HP and Autonomy earlier this week, to introduce more intelligent search.