Compact descriptors for visual search (CDVS) is a recently completed standard from the ISO/IEC moving pictures experts group (MPEG). The primary goal of this standard is to provide a standardized bitstream syntax to enable interoperability in the context of image retrieval applications. Over the course of the standardization process, remarkable improvements were achieved in reducing the size of image feature data and in reducing the computation and memory footprint in the feature extraction process. This paper provides an overview of the technical features of the MPEG-CDVS standard and summarizes its evolution.