has anyone replicated like.com ?

July 16, 2023 9:13 AM

There used to be a site called like.com that searched for things to buy that looked like other things. E.g. I'd enter a picture of a shoe that I wanted, and it would return pictures of similar-looking shoes on retail sites. Google bought it and took it down. Is there anything else on the Internet that does what it used to do?
posted by fingersandtoes to Shopping (12 answers total)

Google image search does this now.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:15 AM on July 16, 2023

Unfortunately google image search does NOT do that now, not even close. Nor does google shopping. I remember this site and it was incredibly useful, and was taken down because frankly it benefited individual consumers more than it did any single retailer. I haven’t ever found a replacement that compares.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:44 AM on July 16, 2023

Google Image Search may not, I don't know, but Google Lens does. If I take a picture of something with Google Lens on my smartphone it will, if directed, show me shopping results for similar images...


This is often times, obviously, links to buy the thing I took a picture of.... But it's also often times search results for similar items. I've used it in this way to explore "things to buy that are like this" several times when shoe shopping, etc, etc...
posted by kbanas at 9:57 AM on July 16, 2023

A site that does this for shoes and handbags is modista.com.
posted by xo at 10:21 AM on July 16, 2023

If you are okay with reddit, the r/findfashion subreddit is good for the fashion aspect of this.
posted by capricorn at 10:29 AM on July 16, 2023

I just uploaded an image of a shirt someone was looking for into the Google app on my phone, and it returned a bunch of similar items for sale. Maybe that is not called Google Image Search? In any case, it is a thing you can try.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 11:01 AM on July 16, 2023

I'm pretty sure Google Image search will still let you upload an image, and then show you similar images. They won't necessarily all be images from retail sites. But some of them probably will be.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 9:12 PM on July 16, 2023

It's Google Lens built into the browser, and it's a little weird how to bring it up. For example, there was the topic "Help me buy this top"

I clicked on the link and it took me to Shein website.

I right-clicked on the photo, and picked "Search Image with Google" which brings up the Google Lens sidebar on the right. Then scroll down, and it identifies "similar" products in the photo. Five of them are from Shein for me, but it also brought up a dress from lightinthebox.com and eBay, a summer t-shirt from Amazon and Walmart, and a couple more places.

If there are multiple products, each would have a white dot over it, then you can pick that and it will bring up different suggestions.
posted by kschang at 8:49 AM on July 18, 2023

kschang, are you using an android phone for that?
posted by fingersandtoes at 11:21 AM on July 18, 2023

I'm using my desktop browser.
posted by kschang at 4:57 AM on July 19, 2023

oh it's a chrome thing? I don't see that option coming up in safari
posted by fingersandtoes at 5:17 AM on July 19, 2023

Probably a Chrome thing.
posted by kschang at 8:43 AM on July 19, 2023