Ask YC: Unexplored Search Paradigms

In these Googlerific days, it's easy to feel like any information I could ever want is at my fingertips. Not so. The other day I was out walking with my 2 yr old and she pointed to a tree and asked what kind it was. My best answer was "Um, a big tree?" Same with flowers, dog breeds, etc.

It made me wonder if anyone is working on (whether startup or research) about visual search. I know I could look for a site showing flowers with names, but I was wondering about where I could send an image and get results. I know this is a complex computer vision and cognitive problem, I'm just curious.

Are there any other ways of searching (besides text keywords) that you wish we had?