Wow … this is such a cool tool … but it’s in need of a real use.
Here’s a (frivolous) example of what you can do with Google Image Search.
Suppose you see a picture you want on the internet, but it’s too small. Drag and drop that image onto Google Image Search and it will find better versions.
So, consider those thumbnails that pop up on the side of popular sites. Like this (100 x 75) one:
First, right click it, and save the image to your hard drive. Then open Google Images. What you see is what looks like a normal search bar, but when you drag the image over it, it will prompt you to drop the image.
Then Google goes and searches for similar images on the internet. In the case of this stock photo used to advertise work-at-home schemes, Google returns several hundred images, including this (550 x 368) one with about 30 times as much detail:
But, it’s not foolproof. A lot of it seems to be based on matching colors in various parts of the image. So this (110 x 80) thumbnail downloaded from the same ad-filled sidebar:
yields no matches, but a number of suggested images that don’t match, like this:
The thing about this tool is … what on earth is its legitimate use? I’ve known about it for a few months, and I haven’t come up with one yet. I mean, you could do something like input a thumbnail of Renoir’s Dance at Bougival to try and find a wallpaper sized version (yes, this works).
N.B. Yes, I used the image of the pretty girl to get your attention. But, no, I’ve used this tool a few dozen times and it has never returned a photo that was pornographic. I have also submitted some photos that some would regard as pornographic, and it doesn’t return pornography to those either.
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