An Image Tool You Don't Know You Need


Sitting in the home office of a friend last year, she mentioned she would love to find a particular photo to use on her new website. She unpinned a much-handled postcard from her bulletin board and passed it to me. The black and white photo on the front was of a young girl on a beach in a very specific pose. We spent a half hour doing intricate searches on photo sites before it became obvious we weren't going to find it easily.

Debi snapped a photo of the postcard and emailed it to me. Once back at my desk, I discovered TinEye reverse image search and was amazed when the search identified where I could buy the photo... in colour. I felt that my first use was a pretty darn good test - a battered black and white postcard, photographed with a phone in poor light.

I filed away my knowledge of this little tool for when it might be needed in a similar situation. I'd be able to come to the rescue again.

Then someone else told me about this great tool called TinEye - for a completely different marketing reason. See, TinEye tells you everywhere you can find that photo being used on the internet, not only where you can buy it.

If you have just picked out the main image for your next marketing campaign or book cover, it would be very useful to know if it's already being used by 62,451 other people. TinEye can tell you that. If being unique is part of your brand, bookmark TinEye. (And hey, it's made with love in Canada.)

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