TinEye Reverse Image Search Engine
TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit a picture to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. It’s the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks.
The search algorithm find instances of an image across the web. When you submit an image to be searched, TinEye creates a unique and compact digital signature or ‘fingerprint’ for it, then compares this fingerprint to every other image in our index to retrieve matches. After signing up for a free account, you upload an image or provide a URL to an existing image on the web and TinEye will search for other places that image exists. It takes seconds for the site to tell you where the image you uploaded comes from.
Due to the image copyright infringement issue, you can also upload a copyright protected image and the site will tell you if someone has used it illegally. For some real examples of TinEye searches, check out the Cool Searches page.
With TinEye reverse image search, you can:
- Find out where an image came from, or get more information about it;
- Research or track the appearance of an image online;
- Find higher resolution versions of an image;
- Locate web pages that make use of an image you have created;
- Discover modified or edited versions of an image.
