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
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
ReplyDeleteHi Kate,
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for sharing this.
Definitely a very useful tool.
Many thanks
Ale
Kate, this is fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing this, it's going to be invaluable. Kim Stewart, LilGuy Stationery
ReplyDeleteWow, 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!)
ReplyDeleteIf the blog is a blogger or wordpress one you might be able to get it removed by contacting them?
DeleteHappy to help :)
Hi
ReplyDeleteDoes this only work on google chrome? I can't find the camera icon on my version of google?
Thanks
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.....
DeleteAnyone else had this problem of not finding the camera icon??? Or can anyone else help on this issue?
Kate x
Thanks Kate - maybe it's because I'm on a mac? Off to get out the pc to have a look on that :-)
DeleteMaxine x
Ahhh - maybe!!
DeleteI'm on a PC with Google Chrome and I don't have the camera icon :(
DeleteForget 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.
DeleteThanks so much to everyone who has commented so far - great to know I've been some help to you :)
ReplyDeleteMuch love Kate x
Many thanks for sharing this info Kate - it's very useful indeed!
ReplyDeleteErika, Erika Price Jewellery
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
ReplyDeleteYou're a clever sausage Kate Lewis!!
ReplyDeleteWorks on a pc but not a mac. Thanks Kate
ReplyDeleteMaxine x
Thanks Maxine - I'll add that to the post x
DeleteThank you for this helpful info! I posted it in my blog with a link to yours to help spread the word! ♥ Thanks love!
ReplyDeletehttp://luanded.blogspot.com/2012/06/use-google-to-make-sure-no-one-is-using.html
Hi kate, that's brilliant thanks for sharing x
ReplyDeleteThanks 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!
ReplyDeleteVery 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.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is really helpful. Thanks for sharing this!!! :)
ReplyDeletethank you for this
ReplyDeleteI am a technophobe and yet this I could do following your instructions.
Fab! Pleased to help :) x
Deletecoooooooooooo 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!!
ReplyDeleteThank 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.
ReplyDelete