Tech Tip: Reverse Image Search

A really cool feature of the internet, that I was totally unaware of until watching Catfish, is a reverse image search! Google has a pretty good one, but there's also Tineye;  I alternate between the two.  

My favorite feature of both of these searches is the fact that you can literally drag and drop an image from another window, directly into the search bar!  No need for the annoying uploading, searching through your downloads to find the picture, etc. etc.  Just drag and drop, you don't even have to click "Search"!! 

This is the image I reversed searched today:

Source

Here are screenshots of my results.

Google:

Screenshot of google results; Taken with gyazo app, courtesy of me. 

TinEye:

Screenshot of tineye results; Taken with gyazo app, courtesy of me

In this example, it is clear that google gives more results, more details about your image (it even told me the title!), and offers you the option of viewing distinct, but visually similar images.  All of these features could come in handy in different instances.  Using google, I also found the exact same image in a wide variety of sizes, from very small to very large, which I did not find on tineye.  

I recommend giving both a try depending on how rare your image is! I know I've found duplicates of an image on tineye that were not on google before, so I think the results can vary!