Google Nose (smell in search) is not just a joke

Yesterday, for April fools, Google put out a video introducing Google Nose, the addition of smell to search and to transferring files. Of course the video is intended as a joke, but are we entering times that sending smells digitally might not have to be just a joke? In case you missed it, here’s the video. Will we soon be able to download ‘smell-files’ from the Pirate Bay? Might be. Remember the big 5 technologies forecast from IBM at the end of 2013 @Duivestein highlighted on this blog: The new technologies that IBM notes are directly interrelated. They are all linked to the human senses. That’s why the company indicates the next era as the “the age of cognitive computing”. There was also a video on smelling: Such technologies include chemical sensors that emit an odor when they detect some sort of pattern. So the joke about Google Smell is not that farfetched. So in a few years when my mom sends me a message about how she made apple pie for my birthday, the message might include a smell sample as well. This technology could also be amazing for digital storytelling. Technology is a extension of the senses a wise man once said.