There are many reasons for reverse image search becoming a popular tool. Like plagiarism became quite common and a nuisance. Similarly with the wide spread usage of the internet and especially after the social media boom, images that were uploaded were being stolen and used without authorization. Both these curses continue to exist, however now you can use tools to detect unauthorized use of your ‘intellectual property’ and images.
Reasons for Using Reverse Image Search
There can be many reasons for you to use a Reverse Image Search. You might be a graphic designer and you are looking for a better version of a picture. If you are a photographer you will want to check if someone is displaying your photographs without your permission. You may be an avid shopper and you want to see a larger image of a product you want to buy. Or you are posting pictures on a social media site and you want to check who your creepy admirer is.
Today, virtually any product that you want to buy, you will find the product and its image on some website. As a digital marketer of a product you want to make sure that your product is not being advertised without authorization.
Here we will compare some of the reverse image tools so you can decide which tool best serves your image search requirements.
Google Reverse Image Search Tool
Google is the most popular and most widely used search browser on the internet. It has a massive database of websites, contents and images. Google launched its reverse image search tool in 2001 and initially it offered access to 250 million images. Today, the number of images has increased massively. Google claims that its image search is the ‘most comprehensive image search on the world wide web’.
Pros:
Google’s reverse image search is easy to use. All it takes is a few clicks to search for an image. It works on mobile phones, tablets as well. And of course the biggest plus point is that it’s absolutely free!
Cons:
At times the images displayed by Google’s reverse image search tool are not all that similar. Sometimes the similar images returned might be so small that it’s hard to tell if it’s similar to the image you were searching for. The results can be quite mixed.
Best Uses:
From a photo you can find homes that are listed behind protected or sites that you have to pay for to access.
You can identify a product and the closest place from where you can purchase it or order it online.
You can find unauthorized websites that are using your pictures.
TinEye Reverse Image Search Tool
TinEye was the first website to ever offer the reverse image tool. It boasts having a huge database of over 15 billion images. Professional photographers and digital designers use it extensively to see if their work has been stolen or modified and is being reused.
Pros:
TinEye is quite easy to use and it has extensions in all the popular search browsers (Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari). All you need to do is to register an account first. It saves your previous searches. The free version limits the user to make 150 searches per week. You will find an exact match to your image quite easily.
Cons:
It does not show ‘similar’ images. It only identifies an exact match to the uploaded image. The upload image size is limited to 20MB. You have to pay if you want to use it extensively.
Best Uses:
TinEye is good for identifying exact matches and finding copyright violations.
Yandex Reverse Image Search Tool
Yandex is Russia’s largest search index and it also offers a reverse image tool of its own. The tool was developed to track duplicate images. It’s totally free and works quite smoothly.
Pros:
Yandex is easy to use. It gives the user an option to filter the size (Small, Medium and Large). You can search for copyright or duplicate images. You can select a website and run a reverse image search on its image.
Cons:
You might need to use the translate option to sign up. It takes a little practice to use it.
Best Uses:
Yandex is good for people who want to authenticate an image.
DupliChecker’s Reverse Image Search
There are several reverse image tools on the web; some are free to use, some need to be paid to use and some require registration. Here we will show you how to use just one reverse image search tool in DupliChecker by click on this URL : https://www.duplichecker.com/reverse-image-search.php that gives you several options.
To make it easy for users not to go around searching for a suitable reverse image search tool, here we have the easiest solution for you. Click on the tool and you can either upload an image from your computer or a website. Click on the “Search by Image” button and it will return duplicate images that exist on other websites.
Pros:
It does a pretty good job and returns images and the URLs on which the duplicate images exist. It’s easy to use and has multiple choices.
Cons:
It only searches for exact duplicates of images.
Best Uses:
If you want to find an exact duplicate of the image, to make sure your image is not being
used without authorization.
Bing Reverse Image Search Tool
In 2014, Microsoft’s search engine Bing rolled out its reverse image search tool. To find duplicate images It uses the visual properties of the image that you upload. You can upload an image or paste an image from a URL.
Pros:
It’s an easy tool to use. By using visual properties of an image it finds similar images that contain the same properties. You can select between small, medium and large size of the displayed image. It displays clean clear images. You can easily find out if some in copying and posting your images.
Cons:
It does not show ‘similar’ images. Bing omits site descriptions.
Best Uses:
If the image belongs to you it can reveal if you are being plagiarized or quoted without your authorization.
Take your Pick
Here we have only discussed five popular reverse image tools. There are a number of other reverse image search tools on the internet. You can compare all of them and decide which one suits your image search requirements. With thousands of images getting posted on the internet today, the use of this tool has grown exponentially.
