google has worked out i have a beard

hello there


last year, or possibly the year before, i had a bit of a wonky science experiment thing on the go with google. whilst everyone seems terrified of just how much data Google has on everyone and everything, it's the case that i, look you see, really rather think that they do, but it's cool as they have absolutely no idea how to manage or use it.

the way i tested this was not intended to be accurate, comprehensive or complete. it was, however, meant to be a test that was exceptionally easy for the Google to deliver accurate results on. that was to say, and you can search through this blog for previous results, that giving them an image of me to search should have been a piece of cake for them to match and find.

why me? not vanity. i'm just an average dude (granted, slightly larger than most), the proverbial "man on the street" expected to be worried about what Google knows of me. and yet i am also who has had a blog running on the Google for, what, 11 or so years now, and as a consequence they have literally hundreds of pictures of moi indexed. as i have not thrown any "privacy" or other requests, finding an image of me by searching from an image of me should be a breeze, should those concerned be right.

that is indeed a fresh new selfie of me, taken for the purposes of this test. to make it easier for everyone, i even took it with an Apple device, since Apple are also apparently most enthusiastic about grabbing and keeping data about people.

sadly, as a consequence of Apple and Google not liking each other, the selfie you see comes up sideways here on my computer. hopefully it was the right way around for you on your device, and, as you can see below, i can assure you it was the right way around for the search......

so, there we have it. Google has, about a year or so after i first did these tests, worked out that i have a beard, and so has grabbed a whole load of images of dudes with beards that might be me. interestingly, it would seem that they have a pretty good idea to work out the pigmentation or shade of my skin, too.

what they have not done, unless i am mistaken, is actually found a picture of me.

facial recognition software and capabilities have been in the news again, and of course everyone's worried. whilst i have no doubt one day it will be a thing, no it is not on Google. there's a massive difference between harvesting huge amounts of data and being able to use it. the analytics, the indexing, the variation computations and all sorts are very far away from being part of day to day use.

or, you know, it is here and it does work, and i'm just a government or Google stooge trying to throw people off the scent, telling them to relax, stay calm, etc.........



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!