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 doubt about the authenticity of the same.

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 to see if a photo is taken from 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!

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 PC internal memory was taken from the Internet, I advise you not to get distracted in this chapter. The procedures that I am going to show you are totally free and can be put into practice on any browser. How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet

Google Images

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The first method for seeing if a photo is taken from the Internet that I recommend 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 make one reverse search: this means that it is possible to upload a photo on 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, understand if a “suspicious” photo is original or less becomes child’s play!

The proceeding is really very simple: first, connect to the main page of the service and click on the icon in the shape of the camera present in the search bar, then click on the item Upload an image and use the button Choose File (or Browse) to upload the “suspicious” image on the site. How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet

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After a few seconds, the site should respond with a series of similar photos 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 proposed page 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. How to see if a photo is taken from the Internet?

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 doing right click on the same and choosing the item to copy the address of the image from the proposed menu, and then access Google Images, click on the tab Paste Image URL And paste the address previously copied to the appropriate box. To start the search, press the button Search by image.

TinEye

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Another great website useful for doing reverse image search is TinEye: exactly as seen above, this portal also allows you to upload photos and “fish” from the Web for results similar to the latter. 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 item Upload located next to the search bar, and select the image of your interest through the exploration panel 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 in the field Paste or enter image URL the address of the photo in question, by subsequently clicking on the icon in the shape of a magnifying glass.

For your information, you can use TinEye even faster 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

Want to know how to see if a photo is taken from the Internet through a smartphone or Tablet? Don’t worry, you can use both I methods seen above from mobile browsers, both of those I am about to indicate below.

Android

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See if a photo is taken from the Internet on Android devices it’s really that simple. First, go to your device’s store and download the application Google Photos by tapping the button Install in the store.

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

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

In case you have a smartphone Android Pixel or Nexus, you need to know that this feature is integrated within the pre-installed app Google camera. To use the function, open the app and go to the section Shooting mode of the app.

So tap on the item Other, placed at the bottom, and select the option Lens in the menu that appeared on the screen. Then tap on the icon in the shape of Gallery, which is 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

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

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

Scroll now to the panel named 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 application Google Photos. Once installed and open, just tap on one of the photos in the roll, then select the icon camera at the bottom of the screen to start the search.

Other solutions

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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 Pictures, which allows you to search the Bing image database through the camera-shaped button on the search bar of the site.

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