So just how does a person find the original source for an image on the Internet?

Images so often float around online, so how can a person get down to the real facts behind an image? One way is to conduct a Google Image Search.

Here is the Google Image Search box. Click the image to try it yourself.

With a Google Image Search, you can upload an image or enter the image’s URL (the web address) into a Google search box and Google will open a page that shows various matches to the image. From there, you can look through the search results and often you can find out who is the creator of the image or the source of its original publication or appearance, along with a variety of places in which the image has since appeared (like various blogs or websites). Oftentimes, you will see versions of the image in different resolutions or from different aspects. This is one great way to test if your image really is what you think it is, since often, through a Google Image Search, you can find versions of the image in which it has been slightly (or greatly) manipulated by an image editor like Photoshop. Another plus for using Google Image Search, is that it helps you as the poster to be a good Internet citizen by your finding and giving credit to the artist or creator of the image for their work and to supply your audience with a link to the original publication or the artist/creator’s website.