What is Advanced Image Search?
One image can depict a thousand messages. And so, it could be difficult to offer a description that locates the exact image you seek. More is needed than putting together all the details that you require to see in the image you seek. There are several tools and methods you can use to improve your image searches. All of these make up the technique called advanced image search.
Advanced image search involves streamlining your search to help you get your desired image. This is useful if you need to find an image out of the tons that exist on the Internet. And it is especially so if you do not know the exact image you want. Looking for a popular image that you already know of only requires a simple Google search. For instance, finding the renowned Monalisa simply requires you to search "Monalisa" in Google Images. However, if you want a random image you do not already know, an advanced image search is what you need. With advanced functions, you can provide the specific attributes you want to see, as well as those you would not want to see. You can even use one image to find another.
Benefits of Advanced Image Search
You may want to do an advanced image search for the sole purpose of finding a certain image. But the technique has several underlying benefits. Here are some of these benefits:
An advanced image search can help you find pictures that meet your particular criteria.
It helps you avoid copyright infringement by making it easy to find free-to-use images.
With advanced or reverse image search, you can determine whether an image is authentic or a modified version.
There are several search engines whose aim is specifically to help you find images. Let us now consider some of them.
Top Advanced Image Search Engines
Out of the scores of search engines that exist, some are very efficient at image searches. Many of them, such as those we will consider below, also support reverse image searches. You can perform an advanced image search with any of the following search engines.
Google Search
Google is the most popular search engine, having over 75% of the market share. Virtually everyone uses Google. The good thing is that the powerful engine, not only finds webpages or text results but also images. An advanced image search on Google is easy. And it is possible to achieve even if you do not have a visual reference for what you seek. All you need to do is to provide some keywords and search by certain parameters.
Bing
Owned by Microsoft, Bing uses an approach that is more personalized for its image search. The engine has most of Google's advanced features. In addition, however, it helps you to keep track of your searches. It does this by allowing you to save and organize interests and search results into collections. This also makes subsequent searches of similar images easier.
TinEye
TinEye's specialization lies in reverse image searches. With a TinEye browser extension, the process will be easier and quicker. TinEye allows you to filter your results by websites. You can also spot differences between your original image and the search result by using the "Compare" feature.
Berify
Although relatively new, Berify does a good job with its image searches. It has its unique algorithm, which it uses in addition to searching through major search engines. You can upload images from any of your devices or social media feed. And Berify will let you know, with a detailed report, if there is a duplicate online. A unique feature of this search engine is that it checks video thumbnails too.
Yandex Search
Yandex has a blend of Google and Bing functions. The Russian-based engine shares, stores, and organizes images as Bing does. When it comes to its advanced filtering features, however, it follows Google's steps. Yandex is perfect for finding desktop wallpapers. This is because it can provide image results with exactly the size of your screen.
How to use Google Advanced Image Search
You have possibly done an image search on Google a lot of times. That is what you need to get started with an advanced search. Start by opening Google on your desktop browser (use desktop mode in your mobile device). Next, select "Images" on the upper-right corner of your main page. This would get you to Google Images. Now, you can start an advanced image search by clicking "Advanced Search" under Settings. Alternatively, you can head straight to Google Advanced Image Search.
The following guidelines will help you achieve an advanced image search from that point:
1.) Fill in the boxes for the keywords associated with the image you seek.
"All these words" - In no particular order, this would find images associated with the words you provide here.
"This exact words or phrase" - This will streamline the search to show only images with tags that have all the words you provided. And the order in which you write them is the same way they appear in the tags.
"Any of these words" - This entry may provide images with some of the attributes you mention but not necessarily all. By inputting "roses" and "lilies" here, for example, you will get images that have roses and lilies. You will also get those that contain roses and no lilies, as well as those that have lilies and no roses.
"None of these words" - Here is where you provide the terms you want to exclude from your search. If your main search has numerous meanings or is broad, then you could use this filter. In your search for flowers, therefore, you could type in "lavender". That way, your search results will contain no images with lavender in them.
2.) Now, provide other criteria to customize your search.
Image size - You can choose to search for images with any (general) size or input specific resolutions or dimensions.
Aspect ratio - While you can search for images with any aspect ratio, this filter allows you to specify the image shape. It could be panoramic, wide, tall, or square.
Colors in the image - Whether in Black and White or full color, you choose. You can also decide to search for a particular color or any color at all. And if you want an image that you can place on another, such as a logo, then the "transparent" option is for you.
Type of image - Here is where you choose if it is an animation or photo image that you want. You can also select from the Clip Art, Line Drawing, or Face options.
Region - This will limit your search to images tagged with or uploaded from the specified region.
Site or domain - You can type in a particular site to find images belonging to the site. Also, you could specify a domain to limit your image search within that domain. For example, when you insert ".com" into this field, you will get only images from websites in the ".com" domain.
SafeSearch - To avoid images with explicit sexuality or violence, use this filter.
File type - If there is a particular file format you would like to see, then insert it here. Simply click on the drop-down arrow and select the format. If not, then leave it at "any format".
Usage rights - This is great for finding non-copyrighted images or free-to-use images. You can search for images that are free to use or share, on one hand. On the other hand, you can choose to find those that are free to use or share commercially. You may choose to extend the usage rights to those that are free to modify. And if you want to do such modification and sharing commercially, then there is an option for that too. You can also search without filtering by license.
3.) Finally, click on the Advanced Search button.
Google Reverse Image Search
This feature lets you search by using an image rather than text input. To start, you will also need to go to Google Images by opening Google on your browser and clicking "Images." Next, follow these steps:
Click the camera icon. You will find this in the search box.
Choose whether to get your image from the internet or to use an image in your device storage.
Paste the link of the image you want to use for your search if it is on the internet. Use the Paste Image URL option for this and click "Search by Image" to complete the process. If the image is from your device, however, then upload it. Do this by clicking "Upload an Image". Then, in the explorer window that opens, find the image you want and click on Open. A reverse image search will automatically begin and you can simply wait for the results.
Final Thoughts
Searching the internet is not limited only to finding text results. Sometimes, all you seek are some images. Google makes that easy with Google Images. Yet, you can spend quite some time scrolling through tons of images without seeing what you want. With advanced image search discussed in this article, however, you can achieve optimum image search results.