How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet

A friend just sent you a spectacular photo, telling you he was the author of the original shot. To you, however, the suspicion arose that this person is trying to make a joke on you, impersonating an image that, in fact, is not: for this, suspicious, you opened Google in search of a guide that could explain you. effectively how to see if a photo is taken from the Internet, so as to remove any doubts about its authenticity.

What if I told you that you ended up in just the right place, at the right time? Well, that’s right: below, in fact, I intend to explain to you the fastest and most effective techniques to achieve the goal you have set for yourself. Don’t worry, you don’t need special tools or to buy anything: all you have to do is a “reverse search” of the images, which can be easily completed using the search engine or the Google app, or through other services available free of charge on the Internet.

How do you say? Now can’t you wait to dismiss or confirm the suspicions you have about the alleged author of the photo? Perfect, then take a few minutes of free time for yourself and carefully read everything I have to explain to you on the subject: I am sure that, by following the instructions I am about to give you, you will be able to complete the task you have self-assigned. At this point, there is nothing left for me to do but wish you a good reading and, why not, a good investigation!

Index

• How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet by a PC
  • Google Images
  • TinEye
• How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet on a smartphone
  • Android
  • iOS / iPadOS
• Other solutions

How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet by a PC

In case you want to find out how to check if a photo you have saved in the internal memory of your PC has been taken from the Internet, I advise you not to get distracted in this chapter. The procedures I’m going to show you are totally free and can be put into practice on any browser.

Google Images

The first method to see if a photo is taken from the Internet that I advise you to apply involves the use of Google Images , the “division” of the famous search engine dedicated to photos, drawings and any other type of “graphic” content.

In particular, Google Images not only allows you to find photos using the words typed in the appropriate field, but also to perform a reverse search : this means that you can upload a photo to the site (or specify the Internet address where it is saved). to ensure that Google finds all similar images on the Net. In this way, understanding whether a “suspicious” photo is original or not becomes child’s play!

Proceeding is really very simple: first of all, connected to the main page of the service and click on the camera- shaped icon in the search bar, then click on the Upload an image item and use the Choose file (or Browse ) button to upload the “suspicious” image to the site.

After a few seconds, the site should answer you with a series of photos similar to the one you uploaded, including links to Internet sites that contain an exact copy of the same: if you should see some results that are interesting for you, you simply have to go and visit the page proposal to find out more details on the photo in question.

With a bit of luck, you could immediately understand whether or not the image you are interested in was taken from an Internet site and, if so, go back to the origin, unmasking any attempt to make fun of you.

If, on the other hand, the photo in question is already present on the Net and you want to search directly from the page in question, you can copy the address of the photo by right-clicking on it and choosing the item to copy the address of the image from the menu proposed, to then access Google Images , click on the Paste Image URL tab and paste the previously copied address in the appropriate box. To start the search, press the Search by image button.

TinEye

Another excellent website useful for carrying out the reverse image search is TinEye : exactly as seen above, this portal also allows you to upload photos and “fish” from the Web for similar results. While the results may not be as numerous as Google’s, it’s definitely worth a look.

To use TinEye, the first thing you need to do is connect to the home page of the service from any desktop or smartphone / tablet browser, click on the Upload item located next to the search bar and select the image of your interest through the control panel. exploration proposed on the screen.

At this point, wait for the upload of the photo to be completed to view all the sites that contain images similar to it: also in this case, you have the possibility to understand “at a glance” if the photo has been taken or not from the Internet and to obtain more information by clicking on any results received.

If you wish, you can also search for images similar to those already present online: to do this, you must go to the main page of the service and paste the address of the photo in the Paste or enter image URL field , then clicking on the icon in the shape of magnifying glass .

For your information, you can use TinEye even more quickly by taking advantage of the extensions available for Chrome , Firefox , Edge and Opera : once the add-on is installed, you can search for any image contained on a website by right-clicking on it and using the appropriate item from the proposed menu.

How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet on a smartphone

Do you want to know how to see if a photo is taken from the Internet through the smartphone or tablet ? Do not worry, you can use both the methods seen above from mobile browsers, and those that I am about to indicate below.

Android

Seeing if a photo is taken from the internet on Android devices is really simple. First, go to the store of your device and download the Google Photos application , by tapping the Install button in the store.

Once this is done, open the application, complete the access to a Google account , then allow access to the camera and the storage space of the smartphone. At this point, all you have to do is tap on the photo of your interest , and press the camera- shaped icon located at the bottom.

The pop-up screen gives you the opportunity to check for any similarities between other photos on the web in the Similar Images screen . At the bottom of the screen, you can also find different filters , in order to search based on well-targeted categories ( Translate, Text, Tasks, Shopping, Places and Food ).

If you have an Android Pixel or Nexus smartphone , you should know that this feature is integrated into the pre-installed Google Camera app. To use the function, open the app and go to the Shooting mode section of the app.

Tap, therefore, on the item Other , located at the bottom and select the Lens option in the menu that appeared on the screen. Then tap on the Gallery- shaped icon , located next to the central shutter button, and choose the photo on which to reverse search from those that appear on the screen.

The search engine has the same functions that I have indicated to you earlier regarding the search from Google Photos .

iOS / iPadOS

To check if a photo is taken from the Internet via iPhone or iPad , just download the official Google application from the App Store . After installing it through the Get button in the store (and having verified your identity if necessary), open it and complete access to it via Google account.

At this point, all you have to do is tap on the camera- shaped icon , present on the right of the app’s internal search bar. Then go to the photo icon , allow access to the images in the roll, then accept the terms of service .

Scroll now in the panel called All images to find the photo of your interest, then simply tap on it to view the corresponding images. As seen for Android devices, you can choose various search categories ( Translate, Text, Homework, Shopping, Places and Food ).

The same function is also integrated within the Google Photos application . Once installed and open, just tap on one of the photos in the roll, then select the camera- shaped icon at the bottom of the screen to start the search.

Other solutions

In case the services I recommended above do not satisfy you, know that there are really many reverse search engines for images on the Web. You can use, for example, Bing Images, which allows you to search the Bing image database through the camera-shaped button on the site ‘s search bar.

I do not recommend downloading smartphone applications that promise you to do the reverse search , as almost all of them rely on the Google Lens service . In case you want to learn more, you can take a look at the tutorial on how Google Lens works and, if necessary, how to disable it.