They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and Microsoft is looking to seize the rich information for its Photo2Search, which it said today will return Web pages with information about the places in the photos sent from cell phones.Microsoft writes: Take a photo. That handy gadget you’ve been coveting is on sale at the mall. How does its price compare to those offered elsewhere? Snap a picture. A new, blockbuster movie arrives at your local theater. Thumbs up, or thumbs down? Point and shoot. It can’t be that easy, can it? Xing Xie, a researcher for the Web Search and Mining group within Microsoft Research Asia, says that, yes, it can…“At that time,” Xie recalls, “the idea was very simple: Use a camera phone to do a Web search. This is very interesting, because inputting images is much more convenient than inputting text queries on a small device.” Photo2Search works like this: Seeking information about something seen, a user takes a photo of the object and sends the photo, via e-mail or Multimedia Messaging Service, to a Web-based server, which searches an image database for matches. The server then delivers database information—whether it be a Web page featuring the object in the photo or information associated with the object—to the user, who can act on the information received: read a menu, enter a gallery, book a hotel room, make a purchaseThe move follows the granting last week of a patent to Google for voice-based search. Technology Industry