One Right-Click, Thirty Search Engines: Reverse Image Search Without the Tab Hopping
You've got an image open in a tab and you want to know where it came from, whether it's been doctored, or if there's a cheaper version of whatever's in it. So you download the file, open a new tab, navigate to a reverse image search engine, upload it, wait, then do the whole dance again on a second engine because the first one came up empty. Search by Image exists to collapse all of that into a single right-click.
What It Does
Search by Image is a browser extension that performs reverse image searches across more than 30 supported engines. Instead of downloading an image and manually uploading it to each service, you trigger a search from the page itself and the extension handles the rest. Engines can be toggled on or off and reordered from the extension's options, so you only see the ones you actually use. The full list of supported engines lives in the project's wiki.
It's distributed as a browser extension rather than a library or CLI, with builds for Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, plus mobile and desktop listings for Samsung's Galaxy Store and Safari on iOS and macOS. That's a wide spread for a single project, and it means the same workflow follows you across whatever browser you happen to be in.
Why It's Cool
The multi-engine approach is the whole point. Most people default to one reverse image search service and live with its blind spots. Different engines index different corners of the web, so running a search across several at once gives you a much better chance of finding a match — especially for images that have been reposted, cropped, or otherwise transformed. Being able to curate which engines fire (rather than blasting all 30 every time) keeps it from becoming noise.
It's built around real, specific use cases. The README is refreshingly concrete about who this is for: journalists and researchers verifying image authenticity, people trying to identify misinformation on social media, photographers tracking where their work has been shared, and shoppers hunting for similar products at lower prices. That last one is the kind of unglamorous but genuinely useful application that a lot of tools overlook. It's not trying to be a research platform — it's trying to save you a few minutes on a task you do often.
The browser coverage is unusually broad. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Safari on both iPhone and Mac, and Samsung's store. If you're the person on your team who gets asked "does this work on my setup," the answer is probably yes. For a utility extension, that reach matters more than any single feature.
It's a solo-maintainer project with a funding model. The README includes Patreon, PayPal, and Bitcoin links under a "Supporting the Project" section, which tells you this is sustained by its users rather than a company. That's worth knowing going in — it's the kind of project where backing it if you rely on it actually makes a difference.
How to Try It
Installation is the same as any other extension — no build step, no config file, no dependency wrangling. Pick your browser:
- Chrome — install from the Chrome Web Store.
- Firefox — install from Firefox Add-ons.
- Microsoft Edge — install from the Microsoft Store.
- Opera — install from Opera add-ons.
- Safari (iPhone and Mac) — install from the App Store or Mac App Store.
- Samsung devices — install from the Galaxy Store.
Once it's installed, open the extension's options and take a minute to toggle and reorder the engines you care about — that's the only real setup. Then right-click any image and run a search.
The source and issue tracker are at github.com/dessant/search-by-image.
Final Thoughts
Search by Image isn't trying to be clever — it's trying to remove a repetitive chore, and it does that by covering a lot of engines and a lot of browsers. If you regularly check where images come from (or just want to find something cheaper), it's a low-friction addition to your toolkit. If you don't, you probably won't notice it's gone. The honest caveat is that it's a maintainer-funded project, so if it earns a permanent spot in your browser, the Patreon link isn't decoration.
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