There are a few ways to use it, as it happens.īut, in any case, you’ll first need to navigate to Google Images and select the camera symbol from the search results. It can also help confirm or fact-check a particular image used in a news report, meme, etc. This function is most useful for specific users for various reasons.įor example, you can use it to check for the original owner of an image to verify or check for any potential copyright issues using it. More accurately called 'Google Images' or 'Google Search by Images', the function had existed since 2011 when the internet giant began to offer it. There are a few products out there you can use to perform this sort of search, but Google’s reverse image function is one of the most popular. This means that a user doesn't have to guess at keywords or terms that might or might not bring up the right results.Ī reverse image search lets users find content related to a specific sample image, find out how popular an image is, and find altered versions of the image and works based on it. In particular, reverse image search is defined by the fact that it doesn't have any search terms. More technically, a reverse image search is a content-based image retrieval (CBIR) query method that gives the CBIR system a sample image it will use to base its search.

What is a reverse image search?Īs the name suggests, a reverse image search is a technique for querying the internet for an image to see if any other exact examples are present. But there is another way, something called reverse image searches.īut what is it? And how do you do that? Let's find out. So, how do you navigate this minefield safely? One option is using images in the public domain, but you are often stuck with low-quality or irrelevant images. Even using 'copyright-free' images from sites like Flickr isn't always foolproof, as creators can claim other people's work as their own. While that sounds obvious enough, unless you know the original creator and have their permission to use it, you could be exposing yourself to potential copyright claims in the future.

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