The first camera was invented in 1816, and the first photo was taken in 1826. Now, over two centuries since the camera’s invention, billions of photos have been taken, many of which are only a Google search away.
There are 136 billion images on Google Images as of July 2022, according to Photutorial. That number is projected to grow to 382 billion by 2030.
Whether you’re looking for a specific image or trying to find information about a photo you’ve found, here’s the information you need — including an explanation of Google Lens, an image recognition software launched by Google in 2017.
There are two ways to search for an image using Google:
Who's the owner of Google?:The same company that owns Waze and YouTube.
How old is Google?:History of the world's most popular search engine.
If you want more information about an image, you can do what’s called a reverse image search. By placing a photo or a link to an image in the search bar, you can discover websites that use the image, as well as related images and information.
To use Google’s reverse image search feature on your computer, you can follow these simple steps:
To perform a reverse image search for an image on your phone, you can follow these steps, according to Business Insider:
You can use Google Lens’ image recognition software on any image to find related images and other information.
If you’re already on Google Images on your phone or handheld device, and you see a picture you’d like to search with, you can simply click the Google Lens button in the top right corner of a selected photo — shaped like a square camera with rounded corners, with a circular lens in the middle — to uncover a slew of related images.
For photos with multiple items Google Lens recognizes, you can click or tap to select the item in the image that interests you most.
If you want to search using an image in your camera roll or an item near you, you can also use your phone’s camera or photo gallery to search with Google Lens.
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