Google Image Search has introduced the “Similar items” feature on mobile and the Android Search app. This new addition is designed to assist users in discovering products that complement the item they originally searched for.
Currently, the suggestions feature supports handbags, sunglasses, and shoes. In the coming months, Google plans to expand support to include other apparel, as well as home and garden items.
”Using machine vision technology, the Similar items feature identifies products in lifestyle images and displays matching products to the user.”
Along with suggesting similar items, Google has also added a much-requested feature by displaying information about price and availability.
If you’re a vendor and want your products to appear in ‘Similar items’ suggestions, ensure that schema.org product metadata is added to the pages of all products you wish to include. All products with name, image, price & currency, and availability metadata are eligible for inclusion.
Next, verify the markup has been added correctly by testing your pages with the Structured Data Testing Tool.
If the markup has been recently added, Google notes it may take up to a week for the information to be recrawled and added to search. You can test it in live search results by typing your domain into Image Search.
