So called reverse image search engines can be used to find copies of your images on the Internet. The most prominent ones are Tineye, Yandex and the recently updated Google Image Search engine.

While you could use those image search engines manually every time you want to find copies of a picture on the Internet, it is often faster and more comfortable to use a browser extension to do so.

The Who stole my pictures add-on for Firefox offers those capabilities. The extension adds a new entry to the browser’s right-click context menu when the mouse cursor hovers over images.

You then have options to select one of the five support reverse image search engines separately (Baidu and Cydral are the remaining two), or perform a search on all five search engines directly.

If you select the latter option five browser tabs will open with the results of the five image search engines.

The options of the extension allow you to remove search engines from showing up in the context menu. This has also an effect on the multi-search option as removed image search engines are not included in that search anymore.

Who Stole My Pictures is a handy Firefox add-on for users who want to search for copies of images on the Internet. Firefox users can install the extension directly from the official Mozilla Firefox add-on repository.

Up until now it was necessary to open the Google Image Search web page to use the new feature. Users on that page could then upload photos or images from their computer or paste an url into a form to do a reverse search on the image it was pointing to.

While that was ok for users who wanted to search for images on their computer, it meant lots of copying and pasting for users who wanted to search for images that were already available on the Internet.

The Google Chrome extension Search by Image changes this for that group of users. It is an extension officially created by Google to promote the new feature.

Once installed, it adds a new entry to the Chrome right-click context menu when the mouse cursor hovers over an image.

Selecting Search Google with this image searches for the image directly on Google Images. The search results page is directly opened.

Google search by image has a single option. Chrome users can open the options with a click on Wrench > Tools > Extensions and the selection of Options under the extension’s listing there.

It is possible to activate a small icon on every image when hovering with the mouse over it which can also launch the image search on Google.

Chrome users can download and install the extension from the official Chrome Web Store.

Today I’m going to look at different uses of Google’s Search by Images. What can you use the new technology for?

Google Search by Images is a reverse image search engine built on top of the standard Google Images search options. Users can drag and drop images to the search form, upload images from their computer with a file browser or paste an image web address into the search form to search for that image. You find the service here.

One of the easiest ways to use the reverse image search engine is to have two browser windows open. Keep the Google Search by Images page open in one, and use the other to drag and drop interesting images and photos to it. This works even in different browsers, like Firefox and Chrome.

Lets start with 10 uses for Google Search by Images.

1. Find People

This works best with portraits. You can use it to find a long lost friend, similar photos of a celebrity that you hold dear or information about a person of public interest. Just use the photo that you have and upload it to the search engine. All findings will be displayed on the search results page. Please note that the results depend largely on the availability of additional photos and information on the Internet. If your long lost friend is anti-Internet, your search will likely turn up empty. Works best for people of public interest.

2. Find Dead People

The Internet offers lots of information about people of the past. From the Cesar’s of old Rome over generals of the Napoleonic Wars to scientists and artists. If a picture is available, it is likely that you can find out more about them. It does not have to be a photo of the person, it can also be a photo of a painting or bust for instance.

3. Get Information About Art

Ever wanted to know what Van Gogh’s Starry Night is all about? Then upload a photo of the painting to Google’s Image search to find out. Even better, you can upload photos of art that you do not know the artist or name of. That beautiful picture in the newspaper or magazine? Take a photo, upload it to your computer to find out all about it. Works well for paintings and photography, but other art forms as well.

4. Find a Location

So you have that picture of the most romantic sunset in history, but do not know where it was taken. Upload it to Google Search for Images to get the location where the photo was taken. Found an interesting landmark, hotel, hangout or even the interior of a house? Try to get their location by uploading the photos.

5. Sightseeing

Take photos while you walk the streets of your holiday destination. Maybe you are in Berlin and want to know more about the Dome or the Reichstag, or you are in London and want to find out more about the Tower of London. You can use the new search to find out more about a building or sight that you do not know anything about, not even a name. Where ever you are, take a photo, upload it to the search engine to get information about the sight. Especially handy if you have a mobile phone with a decent camera, and a solid Internet connection.

6. Identify Plants

You can use the reverse image search to identify plants. Your neighbors have that beautiful plant in their garden that you do not know anything about? Take a photo, upload it to find out all about it. Maybe you like trekking or hunting. If you encounter plants you could take a photo to analyze them right away or at a later time.

7. Identify Animals

Just as with plants, it is possible to identify animals as well. This may be a bit more difficulty considering the fact that animals are most of the time on the move and not standing still so that you can take a photo of them. From the smallest of animals to the largest, if you are lucky enough to be able to take a photo, you will be able to find out more about them using the image search engine.

8. Identify Technology

Identify cameras, laptops, car parts, weapons or household items by taking a picture and uploading it to Google Search by Images afterwards. Maybe you see a cool laptop at the other table in the coffee shop and want to know more about the manufacturer and model.

9. Search for vehicles

Find out more about planes, automobiles, trains or ships. This works even with miniatures, as long as the photo is detailed enough.

10. Find out Who’s Using Your Photos

You can use the search engine to find out if other webmasters or websites have copied your photos or images. Just upload them to the search engine to get a list of sites that have posted identical images or visually similar images.

Closing Words

Have you played around with Google’s Search by Image yet? What’s your impression of the service?

Whatever it is, reverse image search engines are your best bet if you do not have another option at hand (you may want to consider contacting the poster on the website you found the image if that is a possibility).

Reverse image search engines try to find the image, or modifications of it, in their vast image and photo database. This way it may be possible to find other websites the picture was posted on. It is also a chance to find a higher resolution version of the image, or an unmodified version.

Image Search Options is a Firefox add-on that adds links to five reverse image search engines to the browser’s context menu.

The add-on supports the following five reverse image search engines: IQDB, SauceNAO, TinEye, GazoPa and Ascii2D.

The options allow the user to modify the appearance of the links in Firefox. The image search engines are always displayed in the context menu and can either be displayed as direct links or in a subfolder to save space. It is furthermore possible to enable only the desired reverse image search engines.

The options contain advanced parameters which most users won’t need to worry about. It is for instance possible to pass parameters to the search engines. Firefox users can install the add-on over at the Mozilla Addon repository. The Image Search Options is compatible with all Firefox 2 to Firefox 4 releases.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine that accepts images that are uploaded from the local computer but also images located on websites. The second method requires some explanation. It is possible to point the search engine to an url of an image or to point it to a website. Pointing it to a website will retrieve all images located on that website giving the user the choice to select any of them for the reverse image search.

The quality of the results depends a lot on the selected image. TinEye will display the number of related images that it found in its database which is currently containing 1.04 billion entries. A quick test for images on Ghacks brought up mixed results. A search for the Firefox logo used on this site returned more than 2000 results while a search for the Ghacks logo returned a handful that were not related at all.

TinEye provides an interesting service that might be useful for people who like to check if their images or photos are used on other websites. It might also be interesting for research and other purposes. The service is currently in beta stage.