Google sauntered into the world of haute couture on November 17 with the launch of boutiques.com, an online shop that matches hot fashions to women's tastes. Style-conscious US women can create their own online boutiques or browse collections "curated by taste-makers" such as celebrities, designers, and fashion bloggers, according to Google product management director Munjal Shah.
Boutiques uses computer vision and machine learning technologies to match a woman's tastes with clothing or accessories that she might find tempting.
Google got fashion trend-setters and spotters to share top picks and to "teach" the website what they liked when it came to styles.
"They did this by telling us what colors, patterns, brands and silhouettes they loved and they hated," Shah said.
"Our machine learning algorithms use this information to enable you to shop all of the inventory in the style of that taste-maker, on top of the 50 items they've hand curated."
Boutiques lets people create personalised online shops infused with their fashion preferences.
Search tools help solve style puzzles such as figuring out which shoes or handbag best matches an outfit, according to Shah.
Boutiques.com was only available in the United States and was limited to women's fashion.