Whether you’re looking for images to use on a website or just want to see what alpacas look like, Google Images may be the first place you go. But did you know Google Images has a range of tools to narrow a search, giving you more control over the results? These include:
In this post, we give you a quick rundown on how to use these tools like a pro. And to help you stay on the right side of the law, we’ll throw in some information about usage rights in Google Images.
When you run a Google Image search, you should see a button labeled “Tools” on the results page (as shown below).
If you click this button, a new set of options appears, including:
These tools provide a quick, simple way to narrow your search results in Google Images. However, for even more control over an image search, you can use the Advanced Search feature instead.
You can access Google’s Advanced Image Search via the “Settings” menu (either on the bottom right of the main image search page or next to the “Tools” button on the results page). Clicking “Advanced search” here will open a new page with a wide range of filters, including:
The advanced search can thus help you to find a more specific image.
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Google Images also has a feature called Search by Image. This allows you to perform a reverse image search, where you can search for websites that feature an image. To do this in Google:
Google will then produce a list of pages that feature your chosen image (or similar images), allowing you to find the original source.
Finally, we should look more closely at the usage rights options in Google Images. These are important because most images on the internet are copyrighted. As such, you can’t simply take an image from Google and do whatever you like to it; you need to have permission first.
However, the Usage Rights filter in Google Images lets you search for non-copyrighted pictures, such as public domain or Creative Commons images. The options available here are:
Keep in mind, though, that these filters aren’t 100% reliable. Any image you find on Google could be copyrighted, so you should always check you have permission to use it. For more information on finding images that are free to use – even commercially – check out our blog post on the topic.
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