Search By Image has a highly customisable list of different search engines to query. Like RIS it has the ability to add a custom range of different search engines for one-click queries, but it has some additional functionality that just gives it the edge. So far I’m quite impressed and it’s slowly replacing Reverse Image Search as my tool of choice. I only came across Search By Image quite recently when DutchOsintGuy recommended it in the recent OSINTCurious webcast. CFX in your language and drop it into chrome://extensions. To install it in Chrome, follow the instructions here (choose the latest. The tool is still in active development and has been completely reliable for me in the time I’ve been using it. Adding an extra search engine of your choice is as easy as adding a new URL to the default search engine list. My favourite feature of RIS is that it allows you to add as many other custom search engines as you want so you can create a real Swiss Army knife for fast reverse image searches. The most common search engines like Google and Yandex are included by default, as well as more niche search engines like Anime specialist tool IQDB. Reverse Image Search is a simple but effective way to conduct reverse image searches quickly.

Once installed, simply right-click on an image and RIS will allow you to choose which search engine you want to use to conduct a reverse search on the image you’ve chosen.

Reverse Image Search by Andreas Bielawski works in both Chrome and Firefox and is a simple but effective tool. Reverse Image Search and Search By Image are two of my favourites. However there are two other great tools that will allow you to search across multiple search engines with a large degree of customisation. Frustratingly many RI tools only allow you to search across one or two search engines like Google (which has limitations) and Tineye (good luck with that…). There are dozens of specialist search engines available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, but checking an image against numerous separate search engines is time consuming. Reverse image searches are an important part of any OSINT investigation.

Reverse an image