Vodafone unveils Otello MMS search engine

Here’s a neat little piece of software out from Vodafone: a search engine that works by MMS. Instead of typing in your query, Vodafone’s Otello lets you take a snap with your cameraphone – of a building, for example, send it by picture message to the search engine. The results are then sent back to the user’s mobile.

Vodafone reckons that it will work regardless of cameraphone resolution or the angle, shade and lighting conditions of the photo. If Otello can’t match the pic up with any results, users can add their own suggestions to the search engine’s database.

It sounds like a clever way to get more people using MMS, rather than just taking pics and storing them on their phone. It looks like the software might still need a little tweaking: according to Reuters, Otello couldn’t recognise a picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was trying out the service at the CeBIT trade show.