Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A toast to Google image search!

I'm a bit obsessed with Google image search. It all started about a year ago when I received an email from a graphic designer in NYC. He had a client—a very small Napa Valley winery called Gofessel Vineyards—that was looking for an illustration of a magnolia to use on a wine label. They'd done an online image search, found my magnolia drawing, and wanted to know if I'd be interested in licensing it. I was thrilled, of course! We worked out the details, and I emailed the file off to him. I was beginning to appreciate the benefits of online image searching.

Months later, I realized that I hadn't heard anything further. I checked in with the designer and learned that the wine was actually bottled, labelled and available for sale. It was great fun to order a case of these babies for Christmas gifts.

Well, my love affair with Google image search continued when I read that it's a great way to check and see if anyone has used one of your images without permission. Really?! You just go to the Google search site, click on "images" and there's a little camera icon that appears in the search box. Clicking on it allows you to upload any of your images, and then it'll find matches on the internet. I tried my magnolia drawing as a test case, and lo and behold, it immediately found my blog and the aforementioned winery website!

But the really fun part—if you're as easily amused as I am—is that it will show you  images that it considers "visually similar" to yours. For instance, here's what popped up when I entered my red onion drawing (seen below as the first image):

or how about when I entered my purple beans?:

Isn't that a hoot?

But all silliness aside, Google does seem to provide an amazingly in-depth image search. I did find that a small non-profit used my drawing of a Starbucks cup on a one-time online invitation to a coffee hour meeting. Of course, I'd never care about something like that, but if your images are being used commercially and/or extensively in ways for which you should be compensated, shouldn't you know about it?

So if you have some time, do a little sleuthing via Google images...but I warn you, it's addicting!

13 comments:

  1. Oh that's so cool how you came to license your magnolia image! Your comments about Google images are SPOT ON (heh heh, I've always wanted to use that phrase). Google images is often a faster way to get information than ordinary googling. I haven't yet purposefully searched for unauthorized use of my artwork, but sometimes I accidentally stumble onto my images where they aren't attributed to me. ;(

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  2. What a fascinating blog post!!
    Super congrats on getting your image on a wine bottle. That is so cool!!

    and thanks so much for the tips on Google Image Search. I've been wondering about some of that...

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  3. Fabulous, Sarah!! Congratulations on such a beautiful wine label project! Very interesting re: google image search..! Listening to the rain right now..it's fabulous to see it finally here, isn't it? Hope you are well!!

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  4. Your blog is always so great! Thanks for sharing the Google Images search tip; I'm going to try it out. And congratulations on the use of your beautiful drawing on the wine bottle label!

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  5. Hi, Sarah, thank you for directing me to Google Search Images. I did hear about it, but your instructions helped me to run a few searches. Yes, the visual similar are great fun!
    Mm...I'm off, running another few searches.
    Have a lovely weekend,
    Paula

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  7. Thanks for sharing this wonderful Magnolia experience Sarah...congratulations!

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  8. Such a beautiful magnolia! I'm so glad to hear a happy story about someone actually doing the right thing by contacting you before using it. It makes a lovely wine bottle.

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  9. Your work looks fantastic on the wine label! I'm always interested in what people search for and I do appreciate being asked first before they use them.

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  10. I guess the search criteria involves COLOR. What a great post, Sarah. The wine label is gorgeous, btw. :)

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  11. Congratulations on licensing your magnolia illustration, looks great as a wine label.

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  12. Congrats on the wine label.... well done!

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