Image search by keyword: tips for better results

Keyword search versus reverse image search

A reverse image search starts with a picture and finds copies or lookalikes. A keyword image search starts with words and finds pictures that pages describe with those words. The Keyword tab on our homepage opens Google Images, Bing Images and Yandex Images with your query. TinEye is not included, because it only searches by image.

Write better queries

• Start with the main subject, then add one or two specific details.
• Use concrete words such as colour, material, shape, brand, model or place.
• Use the term people would actually write on a page, not a long sentence.
• Add a context word such as photo, diagram, logo or screenshot to narrow the type of image.
• Try synonyms and alternative spellings when results look off.

Use operators carefully

Most search engines support a few special characters. Quotation marks around a phrase ask for that exact wording, a minus sign before a word excludes it, and a site name added to the query can limit results to one website. Support and exact behaviour vary between Google, Bing and Yandex, so test a query in each and see what changes.

Use filters

After the results load, look for a Tools or Filters control. Depending on the engine, you can limit results by size, colour, type of image, how recent it is or usage rights. Filters are especially helpful when you need a large picture or an image you are allowed to reuse, but check the licence on the page itself, because a filter is only a guide.

Compare the three engines

The three engines index different pages and rank them differently, so the same query can return quite different pictures. Open all three, scan each for a few seconds and note which gives the cleanest and most relevant results for your topic.

From a keyword result to a reverse search

Once a keyword search finds a promising picture, you can search again with the picture itself. Copy its image address, open the Image URL tab, paste the link and run all four engines. This often leads to the original publisher and larger versions of the same image.