iOS beta of Microsoft Edge browser now lets you use a photo to search [Video]

I haven’t yet seen any particular reason to give Microsoft’s Edge browser a try, but one feature added to the beta today looks neat: you can now use a photo from your camera roll to perform a search in your choice of search engine.

This is not just a reverse Google Images search, where you can search for a photo already online, but is smarter than that …

You can select a photo from your own camera roll, highlight a portion of it and then search for that item.

In the demo video, Microsoft shows someone taking a photo of a person with a baby, and cropping to just the winter jacket and searching for that. The result is a shopping search for similar jackets.

Other searches identify a type of tree and breed of dog.

There’s also a paste-and-search feature that works the same way as the one already found in Safari: a single tap allows you to paste the contents of your clipboard into the search bar and then immediately search for it.

To get access to the beta, you’ll need to join Microsoft’s TestFlight program, otherwise the company says the new features will make their way to the release version ‘soon.’

Check out the video below for a demo.

Via Engadget