eBay is set to roll out image-recognition technology for its mobile application that will allow users to scan an item and then automatically search the online marketplace for the appropriate product.

Announced at the Innovate eBay new developer conference earlier this week, the new feature will be available before the end of the year, though the company has yet to decide which of eBay’s multiple mobile apps will utilise the technology.

Sales via eBay’s mobile offerings have been significantly on the rise in 2011. TechCrunch reports that eBay has doubled the amount of sales compared to this time last year and claims the company is on target to rake in $4 billion.

The official eBay mobile apps for a variety of devices have been downloaded over 50 million times with over 700,000 new items listed via mobile applications on a weekly basis.

It should be quite interesting to see how closely the new image-recognition technology mirrors that of Google’s “Google Goggles” app, which also allows you to scan objects and then search for pricing and reviews online.

An official release date for eBay's new feature for mobiles has yet to be determined.