Google testing Goggles visual search

CNBC is running a special segment called "Inside the Mind of Google" where they are taking a look inside the company that changed the way we interact with the Internet and everything connected to it. They are calling Google "the most powerful and successful technology company in the world."

Part of this segment shows off a current work in progress called Google Goggles. Hatrmut Neven, a German scientist who manages the team responsible for advancing Google's object and face recognition technologies, explains the service as follows.

"Imagine you're a tourist and you arrive at this place and you want to know more about it. All you will have to do is take a picture of the sign. We send the information up to the server and we recognize this as the Santa Monica pier. The idea is you see something that interests you, you whip out your camera phone, take a picture of the object of interest, and this will trigger a Google search."

Here's a clip from CNBC's inside look at Goggles.

As you can see, Goggles is still a work in progress. It still needs to pass through the "dogfooding" process, where roughly 20,000 Google employees will test it out and give their feedback before it's rolled out to the public.

If you're in the U.S., CNBC will be airing the segment today, as well as three more times over the next few weeks. Below is the schedule.