Do you ever wish you could actually see things that you were searching for, rather than searches just returning results in word form? Riya.com has created the new wave in searching: visual search engines.

Just eight months after the launch of Riya 1.0, the company released the new visual search engine Like.com at the Web 2.0 convention.

Like.com is a visual search engine, meaning that instead of queries returning words to describe a site, it returns results in picture form. According to the CEO of Like.com, Munjal Shah, Like.com is, "the first visual search engine where you can click on / submit a photo as your search query." It was created specifically for searches that are hard to describe linguistically, such as a china pattern or t-shirt design.

Once results of the query are returned, the user may also click on the likeness search button and see items which are similar to their search in a range of prices. For now, the categories, which can be searched are shoes, jewelry, handbags, watches and celebrities. Representatives say that they do intend on expanding the content that can be searched in the future, but that items like jewelry and clothing were easiest to visually search.

I did a little searching of my own on Like.com and was very pleased with the results. While you can't search for a brand specifically, such as Louis Vuitton, you can search for specific details you desire. In a search for handbags, I selected the sub category "women's leather satchels" and received 953 results. For several of the pricier results, I did a likeness search and found 110 results in more desirable price ranges.

Some of the features of Like.com include:

• Likeness Search - the ability to search by image instead of text.

• Like Detail - finds items that have a specific feature you like (such as a buckle, straps, bezel, etc);

• Like Color - find color variants of the item you desire.

• Like Celebrity - find clothing, shoes and accessories similar to those worn by celebrities.

• Like Upload - the ability to upload a photo of your favorite item and find similar, which is coming soon.

Like is currently adding over 30, 000 items and numerous merchants a day and is kicking its plans to add new categories into overdrive. Will this revolutionize the way we search? Only time will tell.

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