Since Google first debuted Boutiques.com last November, the search giant claims that hundreds of thousands of boutiques have been created. Powered by visual search and image recognition technology,
Boutiques lets literally anyone create a working ecommerce site. Google is also introducing a Designer Analytics feature, which will let boutique owners see which products, designs, and colors are
selling. "With easy-to-understand data visualizations, Designer Analytics shows what colors, shapes and patterns are most loved and hated broadly (in categories such as shoes, dresses and handbags)
and even down to how specific items are performing," Google explains. According to
Softpedia: "The tool could prove very useful in spotting trends and seeing
which of your products aren't very appreciated by the public." What's more, "If Boutiques.com has a large enough user base, it should provide very relevant data to designers which would otherwise be
hard to come by."