Search by image. Search for photos on VKontakte (service “Similar Photos”)

Let's say you have some kind of image (drawing, picture, photograph), and you want to find the same (duplicate) or similar one on the Internet. This can be done using special tools from Google and Yandex search engines, the TinEye service, as well as the amazing PhotoTracker Lite browser extension, which combines all these methods. Let's look at each of them.

Search by photo in Google

Provide a link to the image on the Internet
Uploading a file from a computer

As a result, we get a complete list of similar pictures from the image that was chosen as a sample:

There is another good way that works in the Chrome browser. While on the page with the image you are interested in, move the mouse cursor to it, right-click and in the tooltip that opens, select “Find image (Google)”:

You will be immediately taken to the search results page!

Search by images in Yandex

With Yandex, everything is no less simple than with Google :) Follow the link https://yandex.by/images/ and click the camera icon in the upper right corner:

Enter the address of the image on the Internet or upload it from your computer (you can simply drag it to a special area at the top of the browser window):

The search result looks like this:

You instantly have access to the following information:

What are the online dimensions of the image you uploaded as a sample for searching?
List of sites where it appears
Similar pictures (modified based on the original one or based on which the algorithm decided on their semantic similarity)

Many have probably already heard about the online service TinEye, which Russian-speaking users often call Tinai. It is developed by experts in the field of machine learning and object recognition. As a consequence of all this, Tinay is great not only for finding similar pictures and photographs, but their components.

TinEye's indexed image database contains more than 10 billion items, and is the largest in the entire Internet. “Everything can be found here” - this phrase perfectly characterizes the service.

There is another way to search in one click. By default, the “Show quick search icon” item is activated in the application settings. When you point at a photo or picture, a round green icon pops up, clicking on which starts a search for similar images - search results for Google, Yandex, Tinay and Bing will automatically open in new tabs.

The extension was created by our compatriot, whose hobbies are closely related to photography. He originally created this tool to quickly find his photos on other people's sites.

When you might need it

You are a photographer, you post your photos on the Internet and want to see on which sites they are used and where your copyrights may be violated.
You are a blogger or copywriter, write articles and want to choose an “unhackneyed” image for your material.
What if someone uses your photo from your VKontakte or Facebook profile as an avatar on a forum or a fake account on some social network? But this is more than possible!
You found a photo of an actor you know and want to remember his name.

In fact, there are a huge number of cases when searching by photo can be useful. You can give another example...

How to find the original of a given image

For example, you have some kind of photograph, perhaps cropped or photoshopped, and you want to find its original, or a better quality version. How to do it? Conduct a search in Yandex and Google, as described above, or using PhotoTracker Lite and get a list of all images found. Next, follow the following:

The original image is usually larger and of better quality than the altered copy resulting from cropping. Of course, you can set a picture to any size in Photoshop, but when you enlarge it relative to the original, artifacts will always be observed. They can be easily noticed even with a cursory visual inspection.
Original photographs often have watermarks indicating the author of the photo (last name, website address, company name, etc.). Of course, anyone can add a watermark to absolutely any image, but in this case, you can look for a sample photo on the website or by the author’s last name, he probably posts his portfolio online somewhere.
And finally, a very simple sign. If your sample photo is black and white (sepia, etc.), and you find the same, but full-color photo, then you obviously do not have the original. much more difficult than converting a color photo to black and white :)

Today we will tell you, dear readers, about one extremely unusual feature that is present in VK - searching for similar photos, when you can find users who have the same image uploaded to their profile.

Why is this necessary, you ask? There are two main reasons.

First. By searching for identical images, you can always find (or not find) the person who is using your photos. In other words, you will be able to detect your own clones.

The second reason. Let's say you need to find a person, but you only have his photo. With its help, you can use the image search on VK and, quite possibly, you will find the person you are looking for.

It is worth noting that there are many photo search services, for example, Google has it, but in this case the search is not carried out across the entire Internet, but only on VKontakte.

Looking for a user by picture

Let's start searching. Let's say that we need to find clones or users who have uploaded a certain photo.

The first step is to open the picture we are looking for. If it's not uploaded to your photo album, download it.

Open an image, for example:

We look at the address bar of the browser. You should see an address something like this: https://vk.com/photo********_384******. Under the stars photo******** yours is hiding, and the numbers 384****** , which are after the underscore, is the photo number. Copy this address, but without https://vk.com/, that is, you should succeed photo********_384******.

Close the tab or leave it open and open a new one, go to the VK page and select the “My News” section in the menu. You will see a news feed:

If there is a “Photos” item next to the “Feed” subsection, skip this step. If the item is missing, click on the cross and add the “Photos” item.

Click on the “Photos” item. The search bar “Search by Photos” will appear.

We write a word in a line copy: and add a link to the photo that we copied earlier, that is, you should get something like this: copy:photo********_384******. Please note that the asterisks are just an example, below them are the id and serial number of the photo! For example, if we take a specific photograph of Pavel Durov to search, then in the line we need to write, for example, copy:photo1_327778612, where photo1 is the user id (Durova in this case), and 327778612 is the serial number of the photo. Then press the Enter key.

In our case, we were able to detect 7 identical photographs.

If you click on each of them, you can see which user or public the image was uploaded to. Probably, the search is carried out only on those photos that are in the public domain. We were unable to find any pictures that were blocked from viewing.

Can you do a Google image search? Or are you still sorting through gigabytes of photos to find the image you need? Stop doing this: we will teach you quickly search any images that match your request, find similar pictures in a few seconds, and also easily check the required photo for uniqueness.

In this section we will teach you how to find a picture on the Internet using a picture. The answer to such a rather confusing question literally lies on the surface. For example, you found an image of an object or person on the Internet. And you urgently need to find a similar or similar picture. For this There are several ways.

If you are using Google Chrome browser, hover your mouse over the image and right-click the command Find this image on Google.
When using a browser FirefoxSearch by image is possible after installing the application Google Search by Image. In this case, also right-click and select the option Search Image on Google.

Google image search: instant solution to the problem

Let's get started with one of the most common search methods. So, you have a picture of a certain product or person and you need to find out more information about it. Again, 2 paths open before us along which we will move towards our goal.

For the first search option we will use a link to a photo or picture. We offer step-by-step instructions for searching Google using an image.

Open the search engine.
Find the word “Pictures” in the upper right corner and click on it with the mouse.
We moved to Google Images.
Right on the address bar on the right there is an icon with a camera image. Click on it.
We are presented with 2 search options: by link or by the photo itself, downloaded from the computer.
As we remember, for the first option we will perform a Google search by image using a link. Open the required image in the browser, click the option Copy image link or Copy image URL and move the link to the address bar of the search engine under the option Provide link. Click Search by image and get the result.
We see all the options where we can find this picture, and similar images also appear.

The second Google search option assumes that you need upload a photo that is already on your computer.

You follow the same steps to log into Google Images, but select the option Upload file, click on it and select the desired photo from your computer.
This way, you can find all similar images based on a sample, view similar photos, or check your picture for uniqueness.

We will use similar search tools in Yandex. You can see in detail how this works in practice in the video.

Everything looks even simpler if you start learning how to search Google using an image from your phone. Let's say you need to find a photo similar or similar to one you already have in your browser search results. By the way, we will be using the Chrome app (for Android, iPhone and iPad).

Sometimes we need to find the movie title from one image and that is also very easy. For example, you saw a beautiful picture from VK and you feel in your heart that this is a frame from some painfully familiar film. But you can’t remember the name. And you also don’t know how to find this film to watch.

We hasten to reassure you: you are already familiar with the search methods. Use all of the above methods to search in Google or Yandex using an image. They are ideal for find out the name of the movie you are interested in and go to watch it.

Are you looking for pictures on a specific topic? Or do you want to find out if the image you are interested in is found somewhere on the global network?

If so, Google image search will help you.

An intelligent image search service based on “computer vision” can find photos even from a small fragment.

How Google searches for images

Google can search not only for exactly matching illustrations, but also for similar ones. For example, he can find one object taken from different angles.

The result will depend on the number of similar images already indexed by the search engine.

Thus, the probability of finding an object that is on the Internet is much higher than that of something just made.

The best results for Google photo searches come when you search for well-known objects and people, such as world landmarks or actors.

And if you upload a little-known photo of, for example, your dog, the service will return images of many similar animals.

And whether the desired dog will be among them is unknown.

How to use the Google.Images service

Search by image

Open Google's home page and click the "Images" button in the top right corner.

Click on the icon "camera" in the search stock.

Enter the Internet URL of the illustration and click "Search by Image" or upload the file from your computer.

This is what the result of a search for the famous “cat in a hat” collage on the Internet produced:

But the search results included photographs of cats of similar colors.

Go to your browser settings, click the “Additional tools” and “Extensions” menu items.

In the extensions section, click the “Go to Chrome Web Store” button.

In the search options menu, specify “search by image”, check “Extensions” and check the boxes next to the features you are interested in. You can also specify a category - search tools, and a user rating - from five to two stars.
Once you have made your selection, click Install.

Let's take an example of the capabilities of three Google Chrome extensions to search for the necessary photos.

Search by Image

The Search by Image extension from Google was released at the same time that the Google.Images service was launched.

It is designed to upload custom images to Google servers for further analysis and indexing in one click.

The extension adds the “Search Google With Image” item to the context menu of all images opened in the browser.

Search by image for Yandex

Image search for Yandex works in a similar way. Here are the features the developers promise us:

finding clones and fake pages on social networks based on photos;
finding free images that photo banks offer to purchase for money;
finding those who illegally copy content from your site;
searching for personal contacts of artists and photographers who sell their work on the Internet.

The extension for Google Chrome “Search by image from Yandex” adds the “Find a similar picture” item to the context menu of images.