Two search modes, two different goals
People often expect one image search tool to do everything, but there are two distinct jobs:
- Visual search: find images that look similar
- Source search: find pages where the same image appears
Choosing the wrong mode wastes time and can hide the answer you need.
What visual search is best for
Visual search is useful when you care about style or subject more than exact origin.
Typical use cases: - Finding design inspiration - Discovering similar products - Looking for variants of an illustration - Identifying landmarks, objects, or themes
This mode usually returns a gallery of related images.
What source search is best for
Source search is useful when you need publication evidence and original context.
Typical use cases: - Verifying where a viral image first appeared - Checking if your photo is reused without permission - Finding all pages that publish the same image - Recovering source links for citation or due diligence
This mode should return a list of source pages with URLs.
Why the results look different
The underlying ranking objective is different:
- Visual search optimizes for similarity
- Source search optimizes for exact or near-exact reuse
So if your goal is origin tracing, a visual gallery can look impressive but still miss key source pages.
A quick rule of thumb
Use visual search when your question is: "What else looks like this?"
Use source search when your question is: "Where has this exact image been published?"
Practical workflow
For critical work, run both modes in sequence:
1. Start with source search to collect concrete URLs. 2. Use visual search only if you still need broader discovery. 3. Compare publication dates and context before drawing conclusions.
Bottom line
Visual search and source search are complementary, not interchangeable. Start with the mode that matches your goal, and you will get faster, cleaner results.