Can I Upload A Picture To Find Out What It Is

Prototype search is an incredibly powerful tool, assuasive yous to discover astonishing images from thousands of different sources around the cyberspace. And image SEO is a pretty large deal, right now.

But what if you are in the opposite situation? Yous accept found an image, whether it is a photograph, artwork, or even a graph, and you want to know where it came from, or more about it?

This is where reverse image search comes into play.

In this guide, I will talk you through exactly what a opposite image search is, how to carry ane out and share examples of when yous might need to utilise this process, specifically looking at:

What is a reverse paradigm search?
How to do a Desktop Reverse Image Search on a PC or Mac
How to do a Google Reverse Image Search on a Mobile Device
Uses for Opposite Image Search

What Is a Reverse Epitome Search?

Performing a reverse image search allows you to accept an image and find where it was originally published, other pages that have published the aforementioned image, dissimilar sizes of the same image used, and similar images.

Y'all are substantially using an image in place of a text-based search query when y'all are doing a reverse image search.

A contrary epitome search volition show you lot a listing of search results like normal text-based queries. Rather than a gallery of images, it volition show you the pages that this paradigm has been used on, a link to an image search feature for like images, and a possible related search.

And there are several ways to perform a reverse epitome search, whether it is on mobile or desktop. These can be washed on Google and Bing, other search engines, and by using relevant tools.

So let's look at how you can perform a Google reverse image search on desktop, then run you through reverse epitome search on mobile devices, such as iPhone or Android phones, before showing you how to utilise other search engines and third party reverse image search tools.

I will also bear on unlike ways you tin can utilise a reverse image search when you combine it with our backlink analytics or brand monitoring tool.

How to do a Opposite Image Search on a PC or Mac

Performing a reverse image search on a PC or Mac, in a desktop browser, is a relatively simple process to undertake that tin can be washed in just seconds.

There are 2 options to do this, depending on whether y'all are using Chrome or some other browser. I volition run through both.

How to do a Contrary Google Epitome Search on Desktop Browsers

This method works when y'all take a browser open and have loaded up the Google Images search folio.

Navigate to the Google Images principal page.
In the search bar, click on the photographic camera icon with the alt 'search by prototype'. This will requite you a new search display offering yous two options.
Choice ane is 'Paste Image URL', which allows y'all to use the URL from an paradigm you accept constitute on the internet.
Pick two is 'Upload an paradigm', which allows yous to upload an paradigm from your calculator to utilise every bit the search item.
Whichever option you choose, after entering the URL or uploading the image, you merely click search to display the results:

Google Reverse Image Search Using Chrome

If you lot are using Chrome, you can observe the source of an image online without having to go through the process above.

This method is for images that are already uploaded that yous have found while you are browsing online.

Locate the epitome you want to search on the page where y'all originally establish it.
Right-click on the image.
Select 'Search Google for paradigm'.
Google volition so brandish the results of your search every bit above.

Reverse Image Search Using Bing

It is always worth remembering that other search engines are out there, and Bing is ane of the primary options.

Bing has its own opposite paradigm search functionality on desktop, called Visual Search, and it works similar this:

In the Bing search bar, click the Visual Search button. This is the dot surrounded by four corner lines. It will open a pop-up menu.
This menu will give you a option of options to choose from:
- Upload — this allows you lot to elevate an image into the box and upload information technology from your computer. It allows you to upload more than one paradigm at a time.
- URL — search by pasting the URL of the image.
- Take a photo — this allows y'all to use your webcam to have a photograph.
View your results.

Bing Visual Search focuses on the prototype and its attributes before displaying the pages the prototype tin can exist institute on and displaying similar images. It also pulls any text out of the image and offers suggested searches.

Opposite Epitome Search Using Yandex

Yandex is another popular search engine that has the ability to perform reverse image searches.

Here is how to do it:

Select the 'images' tab from the menu above the search bar on the Yandex homepage.
Click on the photographic camera icon to the correct of the search bar.
This volition requite yous ii options:
- Upload a file (or drag and driblet)
- Enter a URL
Your results will be displayed.

Yandex's reverse search results volition primarily display information about that image, including size, potential searches information technology relates to, text it can identify from the epitome, and similar images. It then displays the sites it has appeared on farther downward the folio.

Reverse Image Search Using Third Party Websites

There are a number of sites that specialize in performing reverse epitome searches on desktop. Some, as y'all would expect, return better results than others.

I am going to review one of my favorites; I recommend trying out if y'all want to use a tool or app.

Tineye.com works in exactly the same way as the normal Google reverse image search, in that yous upload an image or add a URL. There are paid functions that tin allow you to track an image'south usage, amidst other things. Tineye.com also has a plugin bachelor for some browsers.

Another third-party site is SmallSEOTools.com, which has a similar procedure to Tineye.com and Google contrary image search. You can run a reverse image search on their easy-to-utilise interface that offers quick answers if you lot demand whatever assistance equally well. Plus, y'all tin can hands observe or add an image by:

Entering Paradigm URL
Uploading an image
Searching with keyword

How to do a Google Reverse Prototype Search on a Mobile Device

Performing a reverse image search on a mobile device such as an iPhone or Android phone or tablet is a fiddling dissimilar from a desktop.

On both Apple and Android devices, you need to have the Google Chrome app installed to admission the Google contrary image search characteristic or use an app that is specifically designed for the role; information technology won't work on Safari or in another mobile browser.

Reverse Image Search Using the Google Chrome App

Equally the camera icon isn't available on the search bar on the Chrome app, in that location are two options that human activity every bit a workaround, either by forcing the desktop version or using a version of the right-click method.

Asking the desktop version:

Browse to images.google.com.
Tap the three-dot menu in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Select 'request desktop site'.
Follow the desktop instructions using the camera icon in the search bar, either using an image URL or by uploading an image.

The mobile 'right-click' method:

Browse to the page that has the image you desire to search for.
Press and hold on the prototype until a menu pops up.
Select 'Search Google for This Image'.

It is important to note that this method works for images you observe through a normal Google image search as well.

Contrary Image Search Using Other Apps

There are a number of other apps that allow you to perform contrary prototype searches on a mobile device. These vary from official Google apps to those created by third parties.

Google Lens

Google Lens is a standalone app on Android phones, and it has functionality available on the Google app or Google Assistant app on iOS.

It has a number of uses for different tasks, and you can use information technology to perform a reverse image search if you need to. This isn't really what information technology is designed for, though, so it is not the best utilize of the app.

The post-obit are third-political party apps that all allow yous to perform a opposite image search on either iOS or Android devices, more often than not, in the same way, you lot would perform 1 on desktop — either using a URL or uploading a moving picture. These apps allow you to wait at reverse image searches beyond different search engines, non just Google. These include Bing and Yandex, amongst others.

Reversee (iOS)
Photograph Sherlock ( Android / iOS)
Contrary Image Search App (iOS)

Uses for Reverse Prototype Search

Reverse image search can take a number of different uses, some of which are simply fun, but a few of them can help you perform powerful tasks.

A few simple uses for a opposite image search are as follows:

Find similar images — this tin be useful for creating content or finding a particular image.
Notice the dimensions and metadata of an image.
Pull text and translate it.
Observe if people are using your images, and how. This is great equally office of a wider link building and backlink analysis process, while also of import for brand monitoring.
Check for copyright violations. This can piece of work for your own images, or you can check whether the image you have found is under copyright.
Editors checking for spun guest content — typically, if a writer uses a graphic, they tend to rewrite the content around that graphic, and they don't always give credit to the author (this is not okay).
Finding an image source to give credit. Someday another person's images or graphics are used, you must give credit to the source. If y'all have forgotten where it came from, you can notice information technology with a contrary paradigm search and make sure yous have the correct to employ it. If you lot practise, you should link to the source.

While contrary epitome search can be fun to play around with, it can be a very constructive tool to use every bit part of a wider marketing strategy. You can employ information technology to monitor campaigns, build links, and monitor your brand.

We recommend using it with a combination of our Backlink Analytics and also our Brand Mention Tracking tool for these same purposes. You may be able to rails downwardly a number of link opportunities that you had previously missed.