Welcome!

A
big sparkly hello and welcome to my blog! I design and make Wedding Stationery www.katelewisdesign.co.uk
My blog is a little bit 'higgledypiggledy' (and no doubt full of spelling mistakes) but I see this as my digital sketchbook - disorganised, but a little bit special! Within my blog there is a lot of wedding loveliness and plenty of fabulous things & people that I love!
I hope you enjoy my ramblings.......love Kate x

Monday 25 June 2012

How to search Google with a picture or photo!


Hello!

Today I want to pass on a very valuable tool for anyone who designs their own products or for photographers. Know your IP rights! I was lucky enough to be shown this by one of my business friends and it's amazing!


Apologies for those of you who already know this, you are obviously already very fabulous and don't need my advice. But for those of you who haven't heard of it - and I know there's a few of you out there - here you go...........


You can search Google (on a pc, not sure how this works on a Mac) using a picture or photograph rather than a typed word!!!!! I can hear you gasp already, yes it is #amazeballs, and what's fab about it, is it's SO easy to do! So, if you're not already bowled over by this let me tell you how this has helped me.

Firstly - and most importantly - it has enabled me to find a few scoundrels who have decided to use my design as their own, without my permission of course!!! The first time, I found a 'new' wedding company (apparently they are the "UK's No.1 Bespoke Wedding Site"!) had taken one of my images of my bride & groom design and were using it on their facebook page! Thankfully facebook were great and could see without any doubt that the image belonged to me and removed it from their site! The most recent incident involves a company who have actually taken my bride & groom design and are selling it as one of their own designs!!!

Secondly by searching some of my most popular designs I have discovered that my products have been blogged about without me even knowing! This is great to be able to add to my collection of where my designs have been published. 


This (I hope) will show you how to use this brilliant part of Google:


Step 1 - go to Google: www.google.co.uk and select 'images' from the top bar.


Step 2 - on the right hand side of the search box there is a small camera icon. Click on the camera.

Step 3 - a box will appear like this. Next you need to click "Upload an image".

Step 4 - next click on "Choose file" and this will enable you to select the file from your computer or desktop. (There are 2 other ways to search too, which I will show you at the end)

Step 5 - so now you've selected your file, just wait a second or two while your file uploads.....

Step 6 - and that's it! It will show you all the pages/ images where it has found your image! So you can go through each and see if you recognise the website's - if not investigate!

The other 2 methods of searching for images are by pasting an image URL or by dragging an image to the right of the box:

Let me know what you think!
Hope it helps a few people.

If you need a bit more info Google have a short YouTube video: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

Love Kate x

26 comments:

  1. Oh, how amazing... thanks ever so much for sharing this. This will help me and my business group who are committed to searching out the copyright tea leafs hunt for the offenders with more ease. Very many thanks. Shirley

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  2. Hi Kate,
    Thanks very much for sharing this.
    Definitely a very useful tool.
    Many thanks
    Ale

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  3. Kate, this is fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing this, it's going to be invaluable. Kim Stewart, LilGuy Stationery

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  4. Wow, thanks Kate - my very first search found a cuff bangle of mine on a blog with no credit or link (but unfortunately no means of contacting the blogger!)

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    Replies
    1. If the blog is a blogger or wordpress one you might be able to get it removed by contacting them?

      Happy to help :)

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  5. Hi
    Does this only work on google chrome? I can't find the camera icon on my version of google?
    Thanks

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    Replies
    1. It should work on standard Google, I've just checked an the camera icon is there on my standard Google....? Have you tried Google Chrome? Its very good.....

      Anyone else had this problem of not finding the camera icon??? Or can anyone else help on this issue?

      Kate x

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    2. Thanks Kate - maybe it's because I'm on a mac? Off to get out the pc to have a look on that :-)
      Maxine x

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    3. I'm on a PC with Google Chrome and I don't have the camera icon :(

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    4. Forget that last comment of mine - I had to select the image option along the top and hey presto there's the camera icon. Brilliant! Thank you.

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  6. Thanks so much to everyone who has commented so far - great to know I've been some help to you :)

    Much love Kate x

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  7. Many thanks for sharing this info Kate - it's very useful indeed!
    Erika, Erika Price Jewellery

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  8. Thanks for the tip!..... have just done that with one of my designs and found about 1000 people using it on their websites, people claiming it as their own design, even offering it as a download screensaver for your mobile and as royalty free clip art and even as a tattoo hahaha!... so angry now grrr! xxx

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  9. You're a clever sausage Kate Lewis!!

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  10. Works on a pc but not a mac. Thanks Kate
    Maxine x

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  11. Thank you for this helpful info! I posted it in my blog with a link to yours to help spread the word! ♥ Thanks love!

    http://luanded.blogspot.com/2012/06/use-google-to-make-sure-no-one-is-using.html

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  12. Hi kate, that's brilliant thanks for sharing x

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  13. Thanks so much for sharing. We have lots of problems with people using our copyright photos on their sites and try to search by typing in text and then searching google images but your method is marvellous as it shows all similar designs too. And so easy. Thanks so much Kate - I just found an apron we had shot on someone else's site by using your method!

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  14. Very helpful, found a blog mention I didn't know about and a strange vietnamese site that had used one of my images to illustrate a song! Also a random appearance by one of my pictures on an obscure site about painting.

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  15. Wow, this is really helpful. Thanks for sharing this!!! :)

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  16. thank you for this
    I am a technophobe and yet this I could do following your instructions.

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  17. coooooooooooo never knew you could do that - what a fantastic tool! There are probably so many things out there that would make my life easier that I know nothing about.... keep em coming!!

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  18. Thank you for sharing this. So far I've found at least one 'used w/o permission' photo for each one I've tried. I spend a lot of time and effort styling my photos for my retail site so to find other folk coasting on the back of my work is very frustrating to say the least.

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I would love to know your thoughts on this blog post! (But please do not advertise your own product or company it really is just bad manners!!)
Love Kate x