Google has been setting trends in cyberspace for more than a decade, but in November, the company stepped onto a runway it had yet to walk.

Launched Nov. 17, Boutiques.com is Google’s first foray into fashion. The website features hundreds of virtual boutiques controlled by celebrities, designers, bloggers, retailers and most importantly, the website’s users. Each of these boutiques highlights items of clothing, shoes and accessories that fit in with the personal style of the boutique creator, who has the option to “love” or “hate” items the site suggests.

The responses that a boutique creator gives to the site’s suggested items—as well as the personal style quiz conducted upon logging in to the site for the first time—help to form and develop every visitor’s virtual storefront.

Rand Niederhoffer, co-owner of Brooklyn-based boutique Thistle and Clover, one of the retailers featured on the site, explained that Boutiques.com relies heavily on visual search technology.

First, a user identifies favorite silhouettes, patterns, colors and brands by picking and choosing items as favorites from the site’s endless selection. Those characteristics will then begin to show up more in their subsequent searches.

“Customers can potentially log on, say they like casual chic, and then based on that list it’ll give you styles or colors a customer might gravitate towards,” Niederhoffer said. “The idea is that it’s acting as a personal stylist.”

Though other sites have offered similar forums where people can express their fashion preferences—Polyvore.com, for example, allows users to create collages to reflect their personal style—Google’s new site takes virtual styling one step further.

“Google does the grabbing and pulling function for you,” Niederhoffer said. “So instead of having to manually select these images, the site precedes that thought process.”

It does this using a unique styling algorithm created through a collaboration of Google code writers and about 100 fashion-savvy assistants, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Manjul Shah, director of product management at Google and team leader for Boutiques.com, explained to the L.A. Times that they “taught” the search engine how to identify clothing and accessories as part of several basic style genres: classic, romantic, casual chic, edgy, street and boho.

“Shopping for clothes is about discovery and not just search,” Shah told the L.A. Times. “You go into a store looking for one thing and you might come out with nine other things too. We needed to find a way to create that ‘bump into’ experience.”

According to Niederhoffer, the simple fact that Boutiques.com is a product of Google accounts for much of its appeal, as well as the high expectations that people have for it.

“It seems like Google is a company that people put a lot of brand faith in, so anything they do, people want to partake,” she said. “So the power of Boutiques.com is that they have the potential to get so many different members of the fashion and design community involved.”

While many notable designers, including Diane von Furstenberg, Nicole Miller and Oscar de la Renta, have signed on to curate virtual boutiques, a number of up-and-coming designers are visible on the site as well.

“It gives lesser known boutiques and designers a chance to make a presence for themselves in the industry,” said Asha Greene, a student at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles.

With online retail and fashion blogging at an all-time high, a designer or retailer’s presence on the Internet is often a major factor in its success. Like Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites, Boutiques.com allows its boutique-holders to amass followers—site users who publicly declare that they are a fan of a fellow user’s style.

In less than a week, some of the celebrity boutiques have garnered more than 1,000 followers. Carey Mulligan, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Olivia Palermo are among the site’s most popular celebrity trendsetters.

“I think it’s really fun that you can base your shopping off of certain icons you have,” said Beth Jones, a stylist and fashion blogger whose virtual boutique is featured under the bloggers category. “It’s a way of bringing together the social media world and the shopping world.”

Chris Rivera, a USC student and intern for the fashion blog WhoWhatWear.com, said he was unsatisfied with the choice of featured celebrities on the website.

“There were a couple of celebrities who I thought were far-off choices because I had never heard of them before or because I had never considered them style mavens in the world of fashion,” Rivera said. “The site should focus on celebrities known for being pioneers in fashion and not just feature them because they are a famous face.”

Rivera added that he would love to see the website branch out into men’s clothing as well, since it currently only features women’s clothing and accessories.

“I definitely think the site has a lot of room to grow and change and advance,” Jones said. “It’s new, which always means there are things that could be better about it.” Jones said she would like to see the clothing featured on the site tied into specific price points a little more clearly.

“A lot of it’s higher end stuff, which is awesome if you can afford it,” she said. “But I think I’d want my virtual boutique to reflect the price point that I would shop myself.”

Though Boutiques.com is meant to encourage and assist the process of online shopping, Niederhoffer said she thinks the site does a good job of not forcing its users to purchase anything.

“I think that really goes far in creating fan loyalty,” she said. “It’s like when people walk into a boutique, you don’t want to hound them with 50 different outfits.”

On Boutiques.com, users are bombarded with a seemingly endless selection of clothes and accessories when they first enter the site. But rather than pressuring users to buy these clothes, the site simply wants to know what they think of them in order to further analyze their sense of style.

“I think a lot of stores are going to start tailoring their online shops to be like that,” Jones said. “Some of them already have.”

As a stylist, Jones said that she could see herself using Boutiques.com as a resource in her own work, especially when a client asks to be tailored to a certain celebrity icon.

Rivera, who styles a lot of young women as part of his internship, also said he will likely use the site for work purposes. “It makes the task of searching options for suggestions to our readers a bit more fun and less tedious,” he said.

Though Google is new to the fashion world, there seem to be few doubts that the Internet giant will succeed in its latest venture.

“I think fashion is huge right now, so this was an obvious next step for Google to take,” Jones said.

Niederhoffer agreed, adding that she is honored to be a part of anything that Google does.

“My feeling is that it’s only going to grow from here,” she said. “We’re definitely just interested in the process and happy to be involved.”

Reach contributor Juliana Appenrodt here.