Poll: Do you like Circle to Search?

It’s no secret around here that we’re reasonably big fans of Circle to Search, the intuitive, powerful system for looking stuff up just by highlighting part of your screen. The last few months have seen a lot of growth for the service, as it works to both add new functionality (like we just saw with QR codes) and expand availability to more and more phones.

But sometimes we wonder if we’re operating in a bit of an echo chamber here, with that Circle to Search praise bouncing all around. Maybe it’s one thing when we’re always looking for the next cool thing we can do with it. But if you were the sort of person who never quite got the appeal of Lens, or who feels more confident crafting a text-based search than trusting the nebulous qualities of an image, even getting started with Circle to Search might be a big ask.

We like nothing better than some cold, hard data to set us straight, so we’re thinking it’s about time we put out the feelers and really try to measure Circle to Search enthusiasm:

Let’s start with the basics: Do you actually use this tool? Whether you’re a frequent user, or just sometimes accidentally hold the down the navigation bar a little too long, we want to know. We also realize that there are a lot of different phones out there in the hands of our readers, and it’s likely that many of you can’t even try this yet.

But OK, let’s say you’ve got Circle to Search on your Pixel or Samsung phone, that you’re aware of its presence, and that you’ve even engaged with it. So what does that kind of engagement look like? We want some more data:

That should really start making it clear how many Circle to Search die-hards are out there (anybody got their “C2S” tattoo yet?), how many are curious about it, and how many of you pretty much forget it exists the second you’re done using it.

Of course, there’s another big question this is all leading to, although one that’s a little unwieldy for a poll like this: What do you use Circle to Search for? Are you looking up products you see in videos? Do you lean hard on its translation capabilities? Or could you care less about the whole Google side of it, and you really just want to quickly share parts of your screen with friends?

Like we keep saying, Circle to Search is really flexible, and its usage can be surprisingly deep, so we want to hear how you’ve adapted its features for your own purposes. Let us know in the comments if you’ve got any tips to share.