Best Image Search Engines

Are you looking for some amazing pictures of vintage cars, or do you want some perfect images to feature on your website, blog post, or marketing email? Well, don’t worry, I’ve got a solution for you, the internet is full of advanced image search engines using which you can find all sorts of images. All you have to do is to feed in the right keyword.

Before I get down to my list (in no particular order) of the best image search engines, I want you to know that you can also reverse search images, such as if you want more information about that awesome watch whose image you came across on the internet. You don’t have to feed in any keyword or word in these search engines; all you have to provide is the picture you want to know more about. The list below includes all sorts of image search engines, those that accept keywords and images and those that accept only one among them. With that said, let’s get started. 

TinEye Reverse Image Search

TinEye was the first site ever to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata, or watermarks, one of the most popular reverse image search engines. It’s ideal for professional photographers as using it; they can easily find out whether their work has been stolen or modified and reused. At the time of writing, TinEye boasted 40.2 billion indexed images.

The tool is easy to use; you can search by both URLs and uploaded images. Registration is not required to use TinEye, but it’s free. And if you register, you’ll be able to save your previous searches. Moreover, it has extensions for each of the major browsers; Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. You can easily sort (oldest, newest, best match, and so forth) and filter (filter by collection & filter by stock) the search results to find the image you are looking for.

Also, you can click on any of the search results to visually compare the image to your upload with a nifty Compare feature (pictured below). There is an upload limit size of 20MB, and your image is never saved or indexed, thus making searching with TinEye private & secure.

Google Images

Google, the best search engine on the Internet, launched a search engine for images, Google Images, back in July 2001. Initially offering access to its indexed 150 million images, this number eventually grew to 1 billion by 2005 and 10 billion by 2010. Today, Google touts it as being the “most comprehensive image search on the web.” 

Google Images is perfect for almost everything, and it doesn’t matter what sorts of images you are looking for; just enter the keyword and let Google images handle the rest.

Using the reverse image search feature is pretty much effortless; you can use it in several ways, such as you can right-click (in any one of the major browsers) on an image and select “Search Google for Image.” And, in an instant, you’ll be presented with other sizes of the image that exist on the web (as far as Google is concerned), a list of websites that include the image, and a list of visually similar images. Another way is to visit images.google.com and paste the image-in-question’s URL in the search bar or upload the image. If that’s still one too many steps for you, try dragging an image into the search box from your desktop or the web.

Yahoo Image Search

Though Yahoo might seem a bit passé for a lot of the people reading this article, trust me when it comes to image search, Yahoo is genuinely one of the best options out there as using it; you can find great images for every niche. Although it’s very similar to Google Images, the search results are slightly different. 

When you type your niche into the search bar, you’ll be shown a variety of images. You’ll be able to filter these images through various filters such as the license (Any license, public domain, free to share and use, and so forth), color, size, and so on. 

Its interface is also sleek and straight to the point. Like the Google interface, all the filtering tools are available on the search results page (but unlike Google, they aren’t hidden), so users can set their preferences easily to fine-tune the results.

Bing Image Search

Bing is considered the top alternative to Google when it comes to search, and image search is no different. If you put the UIs of both search engines side-by-side, many will certainly find Google’s one bland compared to Bing’s, which is pretty rich and colorful. 

Now, coming to image search, if you ask me, image search is one of those things that Bing does better than Google. Similar to Google and Yahoo, you have to type your niche or what you need an image of into the search bar; also, like Google and Yahoo, you can filter images by color, type, date, image size, and so forth. Moreover, like Yahoo & Google, the filtering tools are available on the search results pages and thus are easy to access.

Like Google, Bing also has a reverse image search feature. The Bing Visual search functions similarly to Google reverse image search, and you can upload an image, drag and drop an image or paste the URL of the image.

Pinterest Visual Search Tool

Are you bored want something fun to play with? Well, then you should definitely give Pinterest Visual Search Tool a try. Built into the Pinterest platform, to use this tool, you’ll have to go through the following steps:

  • Sign in to Pinterest.
  • Start pinning images in your home feed (or on any profile or board).
  • Click the little tiny button in the bottom-right corner of the pinned image.

The tool will reverse search the image and will return visually similar results. The image-based platform has quite a large database of images thanks to user-created pins, so if you need to find a particular image, I recommend that you definitely give it a try.

Picsearch

Here is another great tool. With a collection of 3 billion-plus images, you should definitely give Picsearch a try if you are looking for more varied results. 

It sources pictures from various websites; the results that you’ll get won’t be as specific as what you’ll find in Google, Bing, or Yahoo; it’ll provide you with interesting photos that broadly match your keyword. 

You will filter the images by size (including wallpaper size), color, orientation, and type. If you check out the website’s footer, you’ll find a disclaimer that states you need to obtain permission from the owner(s) to use any image. However, you’ll know which website the pictures come from, thus making it easy to contact for permission.

That’s all, folks!

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