In a subtle announcement with massive consequences, Google has begun to introduce NeRFs into their Search platform in the US on mobile.
Previously Google had teased this feature back in late September 2022, but did not comment on what was powering them at the time. Additionally, this fits in nicely with their recent NeRF announcements such as Immersive View and Zip-NeRF.
While it's unclear the total number of product searches that currently feature NeRFs, one can only imagine the plans to expand forward. NeRFs will help power how people discover, view, and try-out products.
There's three things to pull from this.
One: NeRFs in Google Search
Two: Only require 5-10 views to generate
Three: These are being generated from existing photos
The implications from these three features are massive and it's hard to overstate how Google will be able to utilize their existing Google Shopping database to generate product NeRFs for consumers.
While OpenAI (and Microsoft) might be leading the way with LLM, Google has repeatedly shown its muscle thus far in the NeRF space.
