- Extension preferences here for Firefox and Chrome
When we announced our new Safari plugin, we mentioned that TinEye extension preferences were on their way for Firefox and Chrome. And now they’re here!
The new extension preferences allow you to:
- Show/hide TinEye icon in context menu (Firefox only)
- Set sort order preference as best match, most changed biggest image or last used*
- Open searches in background, foreground or current tab
TinEye extension preferences are easy to set!
In Firefox, go to Tools>Add-ons in the Firefox menu bar. Locate ‘TinEye Reverese Image search’ in the Add-ons window list and click the ‘Options’ button.
In Chrome, go to Tools>Extensions in the Chrome menu bar. Locate ‘TinEye Reverese Image search’ in the extensions list and click the ‘Options’ link.
We hope you enjoy! <3
* The sort order set in your extension preferences will take precedence over your browser’s last remembered sort order.
- Safari extension is here!
The TinEye extension is now available for Safari, allowing you to conveniently search for any web image straight from your browser.
Once installed, simply right-click on any web image and select either “Search Image on TinEye” or “Search Page on TinEye”. Results are displayed for you at tineye.com
We are also introducing preferences to our family of extensions, starting with Safari. Preferences allow you to:
- Set the default sort order for your search results
- Open searches in background, foreground or current tab
Firefox, Chrome and IE users: Don’t worry! Preferences are coming for you soon (keep an eye on our updates page).
Safari users: Get the new TinEye extension while it’s hot!
- Remember sorting preferences
They say a robot never forgets–or is that an elephant? Well in any case, TinEye has been doing his memory exercises because he now remembers your sorting preferences!Whether you’re logged in our out, and even if you’ve totally shut down your browser, TinEye will remember your last sorting preference. For example, if you searched for the biggest version of an image the last time you used TinEye, you will get the biggest results first the next time you use TinEye.
Enjoy, and happy searching!
Image by matsuyuki
- Chrome features the TinEye extension
Hey folks, if you haven’t heard the news already: There is a TinEye extension for Chrome. And guess what? It has just become a featured extension!
Yes, we love our Chrome users and they love us. The extension works similarly to the other TinEye plugins and bookmarklets for Firefox and IE. Just click the TinEye button on your Chrome toolbar, select which image on the page you want to search for, and presto you’re done!
Of course once Chrome supports right-click functionality we’ll be rolling out an update for that, too!
Check out our quick tutorial video below, or mosey on over to Chrome extensions and get the *featured* TinEye extension now!
- A simple TinEye tutorial
For anyone who is new to TinEye (welcome!), or who just wants to brush up on the basics, here is a tutorial covering all of the essentials:
- Search using the website
- Search using the plugin
- Find the largest image, or the most transformed image
- Compare results to the original image
- Share your results
Search using the website
The website offers two methods of search: by URL or by upload.
To search by upload (i.e. search for an image on your local hard drive), just click the ‘Browse’ button and locate the file that you would like to search for.
To search by URL, just paste the address of the page or image that you would like to search. For example:
- This is an image URL: http://blog.ideeinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/TinEye-Heart.jpg
- And this is a page URL: http://blog.ideeinc.com/2010/02/23/tineye-index/
- You can also paste a whole domain URL: http://blog.ideeinc.com
If you search for a page or domain URL that contains more than one image, TinEye will ask you which image it is that you want to search for. Just click on the one you want.
Search using the plugin
We’ve got a plugin for Firefox, for Chrome and for IE. We’ve also got a bookmarklet that will work with any javascript-enabled browser.
For the plugin, simply right-click on any web image (it won’t work with images on your local hard drive) and select TinEye from the context menu.
You will be whisked away to the TinEye website to see your results.
Find the largest image, or the most transformed image
To find the largest or most transformed image in a set of search results, simply take advantage of the ‘Sort’ option on the left side of the screen.
‘Best Match’ is the default sort option and shows the images that are closest to your original image first.
‘Most Changed’ shows the images that are the most transformed from your original image first (i.e. the images that have been edited the most heavily).
‘Biggest Image’ shows you–you guessed it–the highest-resolution version of the image in your search results first.
Compare results to the original image
The ‘Compare’ tool lets you quickly switch back and forth between your result image and your original image. This animates any differences between the two images, making changes easier to see. It’s especially handy if you’ve sorted by ‘Most Changed’ and your image matches have been heavily edited.
Share your results
If you would like to share your search results with others, you can do this easily via Twitter, Facebook, or pretty much any other social media. Just use the ‘Share’ tools on the left side of the results screen.
If you want to share an individual match instead of the whole page of results, you can do that too. Click on ‘Link’ underneath the match that you want to share, and you’ll get a permalink to the results for just that particular image match.
And there you have it! All you need to get started as a TinEye power-user. Now get out there and put those skills to use!
- Let’s say you have gone back in time…
Nice one. Okay. We’re going to assume that you’re on earth and you can read English. So far, so good. But how can you build all the amenities of tomorrow when you’re stuck in the past? Don’t worry your poster has this one covered.
and that pretty much sums up why I love TinEye! I had forgotten about Ryan North‘s fantastic Tshirt until I read BiteTheByte blog post. Incidentally Ryan and Dan also love TinEye. Thanks guys! I am now going to order the poster!
- The TinEye Chrome extension is here!
You asked for it, and we are happy to deliver. The TinEye extension for Chrome is now live, and ready to make your searching a little easier.
Instructions for installing the extension can be found on our plugins page, or you can just jump right over to the Chrome Extensions site and click ‘Install’. It’s that easy! While you’re there, be sure to check out our how-to video on YouTube (or watch it below).
This extension works for Windows and Linux. Once Chrome supports it, a Mac version will be coming soon. Also, Chrome currently does not support right-clicking so the present extension behaves similar to our TinEye bookmarklet (but much nicer!). We’ll be updating the functionality once right-clicking is made available.
Enjoy!
- TinEye commercial accounts… the really-super-easy way
A while back we introduced a commercial version of TinEye: a paid search alternative for professional, commercial or high-volume users. While the free version of TinEye only allows you to do a limited number of searches per day and is for non commercial use only, the commercial version of TinEye allows you to purchase as many searches as you like–for commercial or non-commercial use.
We initially launched the commercial version of TinEye as an API only, but what a lot of people don’t know is that we now also provide a user-friendly interface for commercial accounts, over at our commercial website.
This means that you can create a commercial TinEye account and use it to search for images in the same way that you are used to doing at tineye.com. Upload an image, or cut and paste a URL. There is even a separate browser plugin for commercial accounts so that you can right-click on any web image to search for it.
So let’s get started! Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to get you or your company set up with a TinEye commercial account and start searching… the easy way.
1.
Go to the TinEye commercial website. This is different than the regular TinEye website, and all of the commercial stuff is done here, including searching and checking your account.
2.
Click the Sign up tab to sign up for a commercial account. Fill in all of your details, and if you are using TinEye commercially, don’t forget to provide the URL for your company website. You will receive an email verification as soon as you’re done.
3.
Check your email for a message from TinEye and click the verification link! You will be asked to log in with the email and password that you just used to sign up.
4.
Once you’re logged in, you’ll find yourself on the Welcome page. Don’t click away yet! There’s some good-to-know stuff here to help get you started. You can get back to this page from wherever you are on the site by going to About > Welcome (but you need to be logged in!).
5.
Before you can start searching, you need to buy a search bundle (you need to be logged in to actually buy a search bundle, but you can see the pricing even if you’re not). Transactions are handled via PayPal; as soon as you’re done you’ll be directed back to your account summary page on our site, which will show what you just purchased.
6.
You’re all set! Click on the Search tab to get started. Then simply search the way you would normally do on tineye.com. Upload an image from your local drive to search for it, or point to a web image or web page by pasting the URL.
Bonus!
To make searching even easier, get the browser plugin for TinEye commercial accounts. It lets you right-click on any web image to search for it (currently available for the Firefox browser only). To install, go to the Search page and click on the image that says ‘Install the API plugin for Firefox’.
Note: The browser plugins for the regular version of TinEye found at tineye.com/plugin will not work with your TinEye API account. You must install the commercial version to perform searches that will work with your prepaid search bundle.
And that’s it folks, happy searching!
- A groovy TinEye tutorial
Groove Dexter over at groovyPost wrote up a great tutorial on how to use TinEye. It covers finding larger versions of an image, using the ‘Compare Images’ feature to compare similar images, and finding out more information about the subject of an image. Check it out, you might learn something new!
- Who created that image? TinEye adds the iStockphoto and Photoshelter collections.
We are happy to announce that TinEye our reverse image search engine has grown its index again adding over 32 million images including the entire iStockphoto and Photoshelter image collections. This is great news for photographers, image buyers and anyone interested in copyright compliance and attribution.
Today the TinEye index sits at just over 1.2 billion images – yes, that’s billion not million – 1,267,565,027 to be exact. As we grow we have been looking at how to answer just one question:
- who created that image?
Why is this important? Simple: Attribution. Creators want to establish authorship of their work and also know where their images are used. TinEye facilitates both.
As TinEye’s index grew, TinEye became the defacto image registry. Every day TinEye answers the “who created that image” question and connects images to their source. TinEye does this without keywords or metadata. Simply use an image to find an image. This is what we like to call the beginning of the attribution movement.
To start we are adding the world’s stock photography images to TinEye to connect all images available for licensing to their creator and distributor. And that’s just the beginning.
Every day TinEye helps image authors by:
- linking images to the original author – this is about attribution
- allowing image buyers to find the proper distributor of an image to purchase it
- showing how and where images are being used on the web
- protecting against image theft
Maybe you are a designer and you’d like to purchase an image for a project and you have a thumbnail or comp image but you’re not sure where it came from. Maybe you’re in love with a certain awesome image and would like to see the author’s other work. Maybe you want to see who else on the web is using an image… maybe you’re the image author. It does not matter: TinEye connects the dots for you.
At TinEye, we want to index every image in the world to help you find what you are looking for. iStockphoto and Photoshelter are a pretty awesome step towards that but it does not stop there. We will be adding a series of stock photography collections in the coming weeks so please stay tuned. If you are interested in having your image collection added to TinEye, get in touch.
Start using TinEye or join the 500,000 people who dowloaded our TinEye Firefox add-on to make image searching a single click.
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