We all use a lot of images — for your website, social media, and marketing. But have you ever wondered how to find the origin of an image? Or if a photo you want to use is safe from a copyright perspective. Or if that plant in your yard is poisonous. Try camera icon on a Google’s search.
You can do several things with Google Image Search. Here are a few options:
- Identify Unknown Items: Upload a photo of a piece of equipment, a fabric pattern, a plant, or a mystery product to instantly find out what it is.
- Discover Visually Similar Images: Need an image for your blog post, but the one you have is low-quality? Upload the existing photo to find similar, higher-resolution alternatives.
- Figure out if you have the right to use a photo: You don’t want a legal issue from using an image incorrectly, and you definitely want to protect your own brand assets.
Using Image Search to Check Photo Sources
You might find an image that is perfect for your website, but you have no idea who owns it. Or, maybe you want to see if someone is using your product photos without giving you credit.
To use Image Search to check the source of a photo:
- Open your browser to Google Search
- Click the little camera icon in the search bar (it’s called “Search by image”).
- Upload the image from your computer or Paste the image link (URL).
- Review the results. Google will show you all the websites where that exact image is published.