Google’s new addition to its image search is “similar image search” through which you can find similar or duplicate images. This feature is particularly useful when you want to view the source image, for example you have found an edited/photoshopped image of Sachin Tendulkar then you might want to know the source of that image.
For example, take a look at the below two images, you can keep the first image as wallpaper (by tiling) but not the second one (looks ugly). So, this can help wallpaper junkies a lot!
Here are some of the best sites which can help you in identifying similar images:
#1. Google Similar Images
“Google Similar Images” was a Google lab experiment but now it’s integrated into Google images. You can see the text “similar” at the bottom of any image when you hover over it. When I checked similar images for the below picture, there were 8 images which were matching it.
Link: Google Images
Related: Google Image swirl, it organizes similar image search results into groups and sub-groups.
#2. TinEye Reverse Image Search
This is a bit advanced and it’s the best when compared to rest of them. What amazed me is that, when I searched similar images for the same image (which I used in Google image search), it came up with 32 relevant results!
So, the relevancy of TinEye is very high compared to Google Image search. It also provides cool extensions for IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers. You can make use of their bookmarklet too!
Link: Tineye
#3. GazoPa
GazoPa is a similar image search engine with more than 90,000,000 images, that’s a huge database isn’t it? It’s better than Google image search; it found 10 similar images when I searched using “sachin.jpg” image. It gives similarity percentage also, which can be used as another metric in finding relevant similar images.
GazoPa is also available for iPhone, you can download their free app here. Similar to TinEye it also provides Bookmarklets and plugins which you can get from here
Link: GazoPa
#4. Pixolu
Pixolu helps you in finding better images according to your taste. It uses Google and Yahoo search engines to find images.
- Enter your keyword in the search box
- Select some of the images you like and click next (you can zoom-in by dragging the bar present on the top-right location).
- Get better images, you can also refine your selection at the end.
Link: Pixolu
#5. Retrievr
If you’re a Flickr fan then you should try Retrievr. Draw some raw sketch and it will show similar images almost in real-time. Currently, their server is down, but I hope they will be back in a few days.
Link: Retrievr
So do you think these tools will be helpful? Speak your mind!
Update: Gazopa is no longer up for image search. It has been shut down, but you can always try alternatives.
5 Comments
Really Good, we get more option to search. I tried other searches, found helpful.
Google image search doesn’t give similar image search option for all search terms. However, Tineye is good for that job.
Yes, As I said, Google Similar image search’s relevancy is low.. Tineye is far better than that.
Unfortunately, GazoPa is no longer providing the image searching services 🙁
Just updated the post, thanks for sending that in.