One basic question every web user asks themselves sooner or later is where an image comes from. The explosion of memes and posts on social media has only absorbed and recycled material from every digital corner, and determining its origin isn't always easy. This is where so-called reverse image search comes in. All you have to do is upload a copy of the photo in question and let the algorithms do the heavy lifting. Below are three classic services, and one you should give a chance.
Reverse Image Search: A Resource Not Everyone Knows About
The idea basically boils down to this: someone makes a great association with two or more images, it becomes a viral meme, and then we spend months sharing it endlessly. Some disappear as quickly as they arrived, while others manage to stand the test of time, giving rise to dedicated articles, popularity charts, and more. However, there's a lingering question many users want to answer: where do these images come from?
If it's an anime or manga, in this article we explain how to find out which series it belongs to, but if your interest lies in images in general... don't go anywhere. The three services we're going to mention here should be more than enough to identify an image, and the best part is that they complement each other very well.
List of Image Search Engines
Google Images
As obvious as it may seem to us, there are millions of users out there who don't know about this feature in Google Images. The quickest way is to drag the image onto the search box, but a click on the camera icon reveals options for manual upload and URL input. Many sites choose to obfuscate the addresses of their images, causing Google Images to show an error. If that happens, don't hesitate to save a copy of the image to your desktop and use the manual upload.
TinEye
A classic among classics. TinEye dates back to May 2008, and its original goal was to serve as a tool for copyright experts and legal representatives of brands, but it quickly expanded to the general public, and today it's an essential resource in reverse image search. Personally, TinEye almost always helped me when searching for partial or incomplete images, and its domain filter is very useful.
Yandex
From Russia with love (although technically the company is registered in the Netherlands), the Yandex engine offers its own reverse image search system. It definitely has the most complete interface, with direct shortcuts to multiple resolutions (when they exist), a list of sites with exact copies, and an interesting selection of similar images in the style of Google. Don't forget to try Yandex Images.
Bonus Track: Microsoft Bing
Yes! Microsoft Bing is still alive, and it also supports reverse image search. For some reason, one of the functions in its image section is to process samples as text, but you can separate the results with the "Pages with this" tab (which includes site and resolution subcategories), or explore the "similar images", with some rather striking interpretations.
In Summary
Reverse image search is nothing new, but there are still many users surprised by its existence, and with this article we aim to change that. If you're an experienced user, we invite you to share this link with those who aren't. If it's your first time coming across the concept of reverse image search, I hope this text has been helpful. Good luck!
