I came across a post on LifeHacker the other day, where it was asking readers “What Have You Used Reverse Image Search For?”   I found the comments quite interesting in how the general public utilizes this tool above and beyond what photographers normally use it for.

What is Reverse Image Search?

If you aren’t familiar with what a reverse image search is, here are the basics.   I think one of the first services to start this was TinEye, where instead of searching on words, you input a picture.  It can be a URL, or drag and drop an image, and TinEye even has a handy plugin allowing you to just right-click and select the TinEye option.   The search engine then scours the internet looking for instances of that picture or similar versions of it.

Sometimes you get a hit, sometimes not.  I must admit I never had much luck with TinEye.   I would search on images I knew were in multiple places around the interwebs and it would come up with nothing.   So it isn’t without its faults.  The web is a big place after all, with millions of images, I wondered how good this technology could actually be.

However, then came along Google’s Image search tool.   If you go to the image search area on Google, you will see a small camera.  If you click on that camera, it will allow you to drag and drop an image to the search box (or input a URL / upload an image).    In my experience, this tool has by far turned up more results than TinEye ever has for me as far as locating specific instances of the image I am looking for.   It not only finds it in multiple instances in my online gallery but on other websites, Pinterest, Facebook, etc.   It is particularly useful for finding people using your work that shouldn’t be using it.   I found one just the other day in prepping for this post.

Innovative uses of Reverse Image Search

Back to the LifeHacker question and the comments… I found some of the more interesting uses of reverse image searching posted by people responding to this question are:

• Taking a picture of art on a wall and using the image to find who the artist is  (photographers take note! a backup plan if you don’t sign your work or watermark it )
• Taking a picture of a plate of food to find the recipe (I thought this one was particularly clever)
• Finding the original artist for work posted without credit to the artist (it was nice to see many of these)
• Finding larger resolution versions of an image (seems many people try to do this to find wallpapers – and to that I say ‘booooo!”)
• As a tool during shopping, to find where to buy something, better deals,etc
• Finding the ID of something – bug, animal, plant, etc

Room for Improvement

As a nature photographer, I have been hoping for the day when the algorithms behind these search tools get sophisticated enough that I can use my phone to identify any species in the field. (note in 2020, 7 years after I initially wrote this – it is a reality for many plants at least)   There are already augmented reality apps that help identify buildings, mountains, etc.   I don’t imagine it will be long before you can use your phone to ID any particular leaf, plant, flower, rock, etc you come across in the field.   I know some exist already attempting to do this.  While there is a certain pleasure in actually remembering what things are, I would be the first to admit the ol’ hard drive in my head is getting a bit full.

On the business side of things, I continue to use these tools to search for unauthorized uses of my work.  It is a time-consuming thing that you can let completely get out of control if you worry too much about it.    These tools are already extremely useful.   I have issued multiple takedown notices to Facebook, Reddit, and other sites where I objected to how my work was being used.

One thing is for certain, it is getting harder and harder for anything to “hide” on the net.   Search bots are everywhere,  and it seems they are getting smarter.

What is the best reverse image search?

It is now 2022 when I am rereading this post that I wrote 9 years ago. I have quite a bit of experience and years with reverse image search under my belt now. And for as many articles you may see online about the “best reverse image search” – my thoughts on this are that there is no singular best one. One of the bigger disappointments was in TinEye. When I’ve compared results over the years, TinEye usually turns up the least amount. This is confirmed by looking at another result in another browser window side-by-side.

That does not mean TinEye is useless. I will still use it to see if it turns up something unique. My experience with it could just indicate that TinEye uses a much more conservative algorithm than other tools.

Google still does a decent job, but I wouldn’t rely on it solely. It catches some but also misses a lot of social media uses. There are some phone apps now, but I haven’t found one that I like.

Does reverse image search catch altered images?

This is perhaps the biggest area for improvement in the AI’s that are powering these tools. It is also an area requiring careful balance. A tool that is too conservative is going to miss a lot, go the other way and it provides noisy results. As of 2022, my experience shows Google has an edge on this. If they don’t directly provide search results, a reverse image search usually provides “similar images.”

The fastest way to reverse image search?

There are now a few reverse image search plugins / add-ons for web browsers that can make the task a bit easier. I’ve been using the browser plugin for Firefox by Brawl. This developer also makes versions for Chrome, Edge, etc. What this does is add a right-click menu option to reverse image search on all services. It will open new browser windows for each service, saving you the time of going from site to site. As of Jan 2022, the developer is still actively making updates to it, and so far I haven’t encountered any problems.