Finding products that are similar to a product selected from a plurality of products
A system and method, which may be an offline method, extracts relevant image features about listing items in a network-based publication system for enabling image similarity searching of such listing items. When a seller lists an item, an image of the item is uploaded and may be sent to a picture processing service, which generates several digests. The digests are compressed data structures each representing a particular image feature such as edge, color, texture, or words. These digests are then stored in a search database, where the digests can be used to retrieve listings by image similarity at scale. A similar process can be performed for a query listing for searching the search database for items similar to the query listing.
1. A method comprising:
providing, to a client machine, a first plurality of images that result from a first database search and a first selectable icon that is presented in conjunction with a first image from among the first plurality of images;
responsive to a selection of the first selectable icon, performing a second database search for images similar to the first image;
providing, to the client machine, a second plurality of images that result from the second search and a second selectable icon that is presented in conjunction with a second image;
responsive to selection of the second selectable icon, performing a third database search for images similar to the second image; and
providing, to the client machine, a third plurality of images that result from the third database search.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing the first database search for images, the performing of the first database search comprising identifying images that are similar to a fourth image;
wherein the first plurality of images include the images that are similar to the fourth image.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing the first database search for images, the performing of the first database search comprising identifying images that correspond to a first item category; and
wherein the first plurality of images include the images that correspond to the first item category.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting user input indicative of a selection of a second item category;
based on detecting the user input, performing a fourth database search for images corresponding to the second item category.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the second database search comprises identifying at least one image having a similar color to the first image.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the second database search comprises identifying at least one similar image based on a shape of an object depicted in the first image.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the second database search comprises identifying at least one image having a similar texture to the first image.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing, to the client machine, a plurality of sort options for sorting the third plurality of images.
9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising sorting the third plurality according to a sort option selected from among the plurality of sort options.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising tracking selection of the first and second image by use of a tracking trail to enable the user, after the selection of the second image, to select the first image.
11. A system comprising:
one or more hardware processors; and
a computer-readable hardware storage device storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processors, cause the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:
providing, to a client machine, a first plurality of images that result from a first database search and a first selectable icon that is presented in conjunction with a first image from among the first plurality of images;
responsive to a selection of the first selectable icon, performing a second database search for images similar to the first image;
providing, to the client machine, a second plurality of images that result from the second search and a second selectable icon that is presented in conjunction with a second image;
responsive to selection of the second selectable icon, performing a third database search for images similar to the second image; and
providing, to the client machine, a third plurality of images that result from the third database search.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:
performing the first database search for images, the performing of the first database search comprising identifying images that are similar to a fourth image;
wherein the first plurality of images include the images that are similar to the fourth image.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:
performing the first database search for images, the performing of the first database search comprising identifying images that correspond to a first item category; and
wherein the first plurality of images include the images that correspond to the first item ca category.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting user input indicative of a selection of a second item category;
based on detecting the user input, performing a fourth database search for images corresponding to the second item category.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein performing the second database search comprises identifying at least one image having a similar color to the first image.
16. The system of claim 11 , wherein performing the second database search comprises identifying at least one similar image based on a shape of an object depicted in the first image.
17. The system of claim 11 , wherein performing the second database search comprises identifying at least one image having a similar texture to the first image.
18. The system of claim 11 , further comprising providing, to the client machine, a plurality of sort options for sorting the third plurality of images.
19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:
tracking selection of the first and second image by use of a tracking trail to enable the user, after the selection of the second image, to select the first image.
20. A computer-readable hardware storage device storing instructions that, when executed by one or more hardware processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
providing, to a client machine, a first plurality of images that result from a first database search and a first selectable icon that is presented in conjunction with a first image from among the first plurality of images;
responsive to a selection of the first selectable icon, performing a second database search for images similar to the first image;
providing, to the client machine, a second plurality of images that result from the second search and a second selectable icon that is presented in conjunction with a second image;
responsive to selection of the second selectable icon, performing a third database search for images similar to the second image; and
providing, to the client machine, a third plurality of images that result from the third database search.