Google Images is commonly used to search for images and display the results according to the keyword or terms related to your query that you type in the search bar. But, in case you need to find the source of an image or want some images similar to the one you already have, this feature is very useful.
This is a fairly well known feature, with many other variations. An example of this is Facebook image search, where users can find a FB profile using an image.
You can also perform reverse image search on your desktop and mobile device. However, using Google for an image search can be quite easy on your PC, but may require some extra effort on your phone.
Therefore, this article will help you find the answer to how to reverse image search on Google on your desktop and phone as well. But first, let’s find out when you need to use it.
When do you need to use reverse image search?
Considering how many people use Google search every day, you have to wonder what images people are looking for. Many photographers and professionals use it for various benefits.
So when it comes to how to search or reverse image lookup, this comprehensive guide will help you know how to use it, when to use it, and what other options you have for the same purpose.
To get started, let’s figure out when you need to use this option:
- You can use Google Image Search when you need to retrieve useful information from an image. With the help of this Google service, you can find websites that have relevant information about a person in the image. In addition, you can also find a product description of the item pictured.
- If you are concerned about image plagiarism, you can use Google image search with a photo. With this process, you can find out if the image was copied from somewhere or not.
- Now the most common reason why people use this search feature using images is to find images related to the one being used for the search. Google will present several similar or connected images in a second.
So, these are the common reasons why people like to use image search. Now, let’s take a look at the steps to perform a reverse photo search on PC.
How to do a reverse image search on a desktop?
As mentioned above, performing this method on a desktop is the easiest among all the methods. If you are using the Windows operating system, follow these steps:
- Open Google Images in Chrome and click on the camera icon present on the right.
- After clicking on the camera icon, you will see two options:
- Drop an image here or upload a file.
- Paste image link.
The “upload a file” option allows you to upload an image from your Windows-based computer and find more images like it. Also, if you are using a Mac, you can also use a cropped screenshot.
On the other hand, the “paste image link” will allow you to paste the URL of an image that you have found on the web. For a better explanation, continue to the next section.
By pasting the link
If you want to perform a Google image search with a photo by pasting the link, you need to follow these steps:
- First, you need to find an image using Google search. For example, we’ll take a random image of a soccer ball from Wikipedia.
- Open the image in the new tab and copy its URL.
- Paste the URL in the space provided and click the Search button.
- It will take you to the Google Lens interface. From there, you need to click Browse Source Image.
- On the right, you will see the source where the image was taken from. In this case, Wikipedia.
So, these are the steps you need to follow to perform a reverse photo search by pasting the link.
Uploading the image
You can also find similar images by uploading the image to Google. By way of explanation, we have downloaded the “soccer ball” image from the previous section. With that said, let’s take a look at the steps you need to take:
- Instead of pasting the URL in the given space, you have to click “upload a file”.
- Locate the file on your hard drive and click Open once you select it.
- The moment you open the file, Google will direct you to the Google Lens interface, and from there you can find the source just like you did in the previous method.
So, these are the two methods you can use to search by image on Google. However, if you’re using a phone and want to use image search from a phone, read the next section.
Steps to perform a reverse image search on a phone
If you want to perform a reverse image search on your phone (iOS or Android), you won’t find any built-in functionality. Therefore, you have to download the Google Chrome browser and go through the process differently on Android and iOS.
So let’s start with how to search by image in Android.
Since you need Chrome to use reverse image search, the method will be slightly the same as on your home workstation. To carry out this method on Android, you must follow these steps:
- Open Chrome and visit the Google Images page.
- Tap the camera icon in the search bar.
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If you haven’t used Chrome before, you need to give the app permission to access your camera and gallery.
- You will see the open camera and your recent files on the screen. Then you just need to select any file from phone storage, or you can even take a screenshot and use it.
- Choose the image for the reverse search; in this case, we will use the Labrador image.
- When you choose the image, Google Lens will automatically start scanning it and give you similar results.
So, by following these steps, you can easily use reverse Google photo search on Android. Continue further to see the steps on an iPhone.
If you are not an Android user, there are several methods through which you can perform a reverse Google image search on an iPhone.
If you are using Chrome, the steps would be the same as on Android. But you can also carry out the process through the Safari application. So if you are using Safari, you need to follow these steps:
- Open images.google.com in Safari.
- Choose any image and tap on the camera icon on the left to get similar images. Here we have selected an image of a waterfall.
- The moment you tap on the camera icon, you will see similar images below and also an ID of the image.
Here, we got similar images of the waterfall and its identification as “Abbi Falls”.
Now moving further, let’s talk about other search engines besides Google to perform image search on phone or PC.
Other search engines for reverse image search for desktop
If you don’t want to use Google Chrome or Safari for reverse photo search, you can also try other search engines. So the other options you have as search engines are:
Bing is a search engine from Microsoft that can also perform a reverse photo search. If you’re using Bing on a computer, just open it and click the camera icon next to the microphone icon.
Clicking on it will bring up the same options as Google Chrome.
So you can upload an image from your desktop or paste the URL you found on the internet. The process will be the same as Chrome.
If you’ve been wondering how you do a reverse photo search if you don’t have Chrome or Bing, you can try other third-party browsers like TinEye. The search engine itself claims to have indexed over 60 billion images from the web.
If you’re on a PC, you can easily search by URL, drag and drop any image or directly upload an image for reverse photo search. However, if you’re using a phone, you just need to tap the upload icon and use any photo from your camera feed.
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You can only use TinEye 150 times a week. To use it more than that, you have to purchase the paid version.
Yandex is a Russian search engine that helps you search with an image like other browsers on this list.
If you are using a personal computer, you need to open the Pictures section. Then you can upload an image or paste the URL.
Apart from these browsers, you can also try other options like Berify and Pixsy for image search with a photo. However, these browsers are paid and can cause security problems.
Third-Party Reverse Image Search Apps for Mobile Devices
If you use image search on your phone frequently, it is better to have a third-party app for this purpose. You can consider any of these applications for the process:
Search By Image is a free reverse image search app that you can use on an Android device. It helps you find similar photos easily and uses search engines like Google, Bing and TinEye.
Download for Android.
If you ever come across an object or thing in the real world and would like to know what it is, CamFind can surely help you. The app will identify the image for you, and if it’s a product, you’ll also be able to get comparison results.
Download for Android and iOS.
Reversee is a free app for iOS users that directly submits an image to the Google Images database to find similar images. It also has a paid version that you can buy for $3.99.
Download for iOS.
Photo Sherlock is an excellent app for Android and iOS that comes with a simple user interface. The app gets the search result from Google and Bing, but you can also use it to recognize celebrity faces.
Download for Android and iOS.
Veracity is another easy to understand reverse photo search app for iPhone users only. You can use any image from the Camera Roll or Photo Library for reverse lookup purposes and even link it to your Dropbox account. However, you cannot share the results with any other user.
Download for iOS.
So, these are some of the best apps to consider if you don’t want to use the browser for the process. They will surely give you the same results as a browser and may give you additional benefits if you buy the paid version.
Last words
So, with the methods given above, you can easily perform a Google image search with a photo. Whether you’re using a desktop computer or a smartphone, this comprehensive guide covers all the possible ways to do it. Also, you can see the difference in the process while using an Android phone or iPhone for the process.
You can try other search engines besides Google Chrome, such as Bing, TinEye, and Yandex for image search. Also, if you are a frequent user of Google Images, you can even try various apps like CamFind, Search By Image, Reversee, Photo Sherlock, and Veracity.
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Categories: Technology
Source: SCHOOL TRANG DAI
