You may use an image as the search input and retrieve results relating to the picture, such as the image’s originating location, object name, and persona details using Google’s reverse image search. In this post, I will show you how to quickly start a reverse image search in your photos library， Finder on Mac, or File Explorer on Windows.
Regular Google Reverse Image Search
Normally, you just go to the Google Image Search page and upload your image to start a reverse image search. This method will work if you have a browser, so you can also use it on your iPhone or Android phone. Let me show you how step by step.
Step 1. Go to the Google Image Search page.
Step 2, In the search box, click the camera icon with the alt “search by image”. This will take you to a new search screen with two options.
The first is “Paste image URL”, which lets you paste the URL of an image you found on the internet.
“Upload an image” is the second option, which allows you to choose an image from your device to use as the search item.
Step 3. Click on “Upload an Image” to select an image from your storage. After inputting the URL or uploading the picture, all you have to do is click search to view the results, regardless of which method you choose.
If you want to do a reverse image search on Android or iOS, you need to enable Desktop view to see such options. Then you can select an image from your Photos Library, Files app, or take a photo to start the search.
Reverse Image Search Shortcut for macOS or iOS
For Mac users, you can use the Shortcuts app, a built-in app for automation. With a custom reverse image search shortcut, you can run it as a quick action to perform a Google reverse image search. iOS users can run it from any image Share Sheet. I will take Mac Shortcuts as an example to show you how it works.
Step 1. Open this link in Safari to get this Reverse Image Search shortcut for your Mac. It also works on iOS.
Step 2. In Finder or Desktop, right click on any image and then select Quick Actions >Reverse Image Search.
Step 3. You will be prompt to allow the shortcut to open a webpage. Click “Allow” and then it will show you the Reverse Image Search results.
That’s it. Reverse Image Search has never been easier. To run this shortcut on your iPhone, you just tap on the Share button of any image and select the Reverse Image Search shortcut. If you want to explore more about what shortcuts can do, you can check my favorite iOS shortcuts.
Reverse Image Search from File Explorer
There is a method for doing a reverse image search on a computer image that is quicker and simpler. GoogleImageShell is an open source tool that brings Google’s reverse image search to Windows’ File Explorer as a right-click menu option. When this option is chosen, it will automatically perform a Google reverse image search. Sounds great? You can follow the steps below to set it up.
Step 1. Download GoogleImageShell from Github and save the.exe on your PC. You should not move or delete it.
GoogleImageShell needs Windows 7 or above, as well as.NET Framework 4.6.1 or above.
Step 2. Run the.exe file to install GoogleImageShell exclusively for the current user. If you want to enable it for all users, right-click the.exe file and choose Run as administrator to install it.
Step 3. It will open the GoogleImageShell dialog box. From there, you can choose whether or not to include the file extension in the search and whether or not to resize huge photos before uploading. You may change the default Context menu text, which shows in the right-click menu.
Step 4. Check the Install/uninstall for all users box if you installed GoogleImageShell for all users.
Step 5. In a few seconds, the Context Menu Items dialog box confirms that the context menu entries have been added to File Explorer. Then you can click “OK” to exit the dialog box and start a reverse image search from File Explorer.
Now, you can right click on an image on your computer and select “Search on Google Images” to do a reverse image search in your default browser. For the reverse image search, you may also pick numerous pictures. If you picked several photographs, the browser displays the results in different tabs for each image.
PNG, JPG, GIF, and BMP are all supported by GoogleImageShell. If you want to search with an image in another extension, you can keep reading to use another method.
Chrome Image Search
If you don’t want to install anything or you may want to quickly start a reserve image search with WebP images, you can use Chrome image search. If you use Chrome as your default web browser, it will open with Chrome when you double click on a WebP image. On Chrome, you can right click on the image and select “Search image with Google Lens”.
Similarly, you can also select Chrome to open images with other formats like SVG, PNG, JPG, etc. You can set it in Settings > Apps > Default Apps or in the right-click menu of any image. Right click on an image and select Open With > Choose another app > More apps > Look for another app on this PC > C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe.
Conclusion
These are a few quick methods to start a reverse image search. Hopefully, you will find it useful. In addition to determining the origin of a picture, I also use reverse image search to find out a celebrity’s name, determine if a picture is genuine, identify unknown plants, animals, and more.