Thought #1
I was reading an article this morning by Maria Lin
Is the Creepiest Internet Stalking Tool Yet Right at Our Fingertips?
Her article is about the search tool that Google has where you have the ability to search by image as opposed to searching by words. Now in theory, this tool is so you might search for the name of a particular piece of art or perhaps a type of plant or animal that you aren't familiar with.
How flipping handy is this? You see a plant such as this:
Good to know!!!!
Anyway...back to the article...Maria pointed out something that I wasn't aware of. Instead of searching for such mundane things as poison ivy and such, this could be used for more nefarious endeavors such as finding out more about those people that we run across on such sites as Facebook. It turns out a friend of Maria's figured out that you could put people's Internet pictures into the search and it would often bring up things like where they work or where they live. Lo and Behold...a techy way of stalking has presented itself.
So to prove his theory, Maria's friend, downloaded 35 anonymous photos from dating sites such as Match.com and Howaboutwe.com into Google Image search to find out what came up. All types of fun interesting facts came up, actually. Information such as first and last names, places of employment, religious background, home addresses, and one photo was the press picture for a Bollywood movie star.
As I am not currently stalking anyone, nor am I seeking a date with an unknown person, I hadn't thought to use Google Image search in that manner. (calm down, husband...this is for educational purposes only)
Now that Maria's article has thrown out the inspiration which I have caught into my "net" of another way to piss away time, I, of course have to do some searches.
Thought #2
So if I take a picture of me
and add it to Google search
What? What the HELL???
It matched me to my old lady photoshopped image and a bunch of men. Now mind you that some of the men aren't bad looking....but Google seems to think I look like this
OR THIS
 |
| Come on, Google...I really don't see the resemblance |
OR THIS
 |
| OK, I kind of see a resemblance plus I like this guys name...Lancelot "Capability" Brown. |
NARY A WOMAN MATCH IN SIGHT, I THINK I AM HURT.
Note to Google: My dearest Google, I still adore you for all the information you provide to me on a minute by minute basis. You have cut me to the quick thinking I only look like men but all is forgiven. I still love you my dear, Google. Cheryl P.
The Bad...the guy on the dating site that used the Bollywood star's picture. What a poser???
The Weird for the Day....The technology that searches pictures and match them to all the information on the Internet. Very cool but still...weird.
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18 comments:
Wow, I didn't realize Google lets you search by images now...
In any case, I'm kinda glad it's not a "perfect" search tool, like it having flaws and thinking you look like those pictures you posted (lol!). It's pretty scary to know some of the things that can be done on the Internet these days. Thanks for sharing that info!
Have a great week ahead!
I, totally agree. I wouldn't want any search product to work so efficiently that any person could tap into your business with total accuracy. Thank goodness there is room for error on this. Just let some one that is looking for me try to figure out the connection between me and Capability Brown.
Damn! You're right. I don't know if that's totally stalky or totally cool, but I definitely have to try it. :)
Ok, so before I could leave a comment, I had to try it. I searched with my personal facebook account picture, and sure enough, my facebook page came up. Now for the really bad part. You think you got it bad 'cause Google came up with pictures of men as "similar" to your picture? Well, Google put up a picture of a model airplane as similar to my picture. I apparently look like an airplane! :-)
While not totally accurate...super fun to see what it finds as a matches. It actually works fairly accurately on things like art and plants.
A model airplane???? WTF...did the plane have a logo of cute shoes on it??? A cute flight attendent looking out the window? I don't see the similarity.
I guess if someone is trying to stalk you they will be hangin around the local airport.
Hi Cheryl
Google is one of the biggest hacking and stalker tools on the web. You can find anything you want if you know the right command line to put in the search.
You can find unprotected networks, Servers and files on every subject. Music files, photos, personal info, whatever you wish etc... The reason for this is many do not know that they need to have a no robot no follow code on their files they want protected or Google's spider will crawl the files and index them in the search and publish them all over the web with the location on how to get to them. You can also hack into cctv all over the world. To see what you can do just Google "inurl hack" on Google search and you will be surprised on how they teach beginner hackers how to do this.
Not that I would have ever used any of this sort of thing when bored.
Have a great Week, Clicks
Wolf
Do not fret young one. We all know you're beautiful.
On the other hand, most people think I'm really the Monty Pythonesque woman that appears on my header.
Holy. What?
I think "Search By Image" is AWESOME - except that I do NOT like that it gives away private information. That's a little scary. And creepy.
Now I have to see what happens if I use my own image.
Okay, I totally used my image [the same icon here - and on FB - and on Twitter ect] and my results came back as MACBOOKPRO! And, I'll take that!
Cheryl, I am sitting in my office laughing my ass off! I hadn't even heard of Google Image Search and you had me all set up to hear of the intimate information you'd find about yourself by using it. Now I'm going to have to try it! Great post.
Aren't you sweet? I never thought that you were the person on the header as you never mentioned having puppet joint jaws. I would think that would have been worth mentioning.
Yeah, I wouldn't be too keen on having my address and phone number broadcasted around, as some of my blog posts aren't necessarily met with enthusiasm but it is kind of fun to see what comes up.
You are a pro on the Mac aren't you???
Are you feeling better today? I will jump over to Facebook to check on your status.
Thanks, Bud. While I have used Google Image to track down names of paintings and such, I hadn't thought to Google personal photos. Kind of fun. I googled one of my grandboys and pictures of old 45 vinyl records came up. I am left to assume that my little G-boy has a very round little head.
I know that you would know about this as you and Trina are both UBER smart about computers. I struggle through even the simple tasks. If the world was dependent on me to hack into something to save the planet, I would be sending out emails to tell everyone to get their shit in order...the world is about to end.
Yes, and in my photo I guess Google detects my computer.
But thankfully NO personal information about me.
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm about to pee my pants laughing!!
Who knew about Google Image?? Pretty funny to play around with.
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