Did you know that you can search for images across the web just by dropping the image into the Google image search field?
Like this:
Go to Google and search for an image (click on “images”):
This takes you to the image search:
Now you can simply drop images from your desktop, say, onto the search field (where it now says “google” in the image above) – and it will expand and search.
And now, Google does two things:
- It displays all uses of that exact image that it has found on the Internet;
- It also shows similar images, with a very clever algorithm that searches for similar-looking images by shape and colour.
Amazing. And enlightening, quite often. This Hongkong-based outfit used one of my images without permission (I am now talking to them); and this Vietnamese person did the same, with the same image. And that’s after just a few minutes searching random images. I suppose some more searching is called for!
If you have not yet used this incredible search function, I suggest you give it a try. Start with images you yourself have blogged, so you can see that it does indeed work.
You can also use TinEye to do this. I think it might even be better. Never done a test though.
Very true. I last tested it a while ago and it wasn’t very good – it was still a beta and its database was very small. But worth a try.
Thanks for the tip. I tried Google and did find one of my images being used commercially. From your experience what is the best way to approach the company? Many thanks for a great blog and a super resource.
Email them and be positive. Explain that you are sure they will do teh honourable thing and pay. Suggest a rate.
Good luck!