Conducting an Image Search While Avoiding Pinterest

I love Pinterest.

But I also hate Pinterest when I’m trying to do an image search.  I recently was searching for “wonky row quilts” and everything took me right over to a Pinterest page, which is a crazy way to try to find something. You have landed on this interminable page of images and then you have to search the page again, without the benefit of Google’s search engines. So this is now what I do.

Your type your key words into the splash page (the first page in a website) that looks like either the one above or the one below.

You are used to the above two views, where you can find your way to an image library.  I included the first view so you can see how maddening it is to get all those Pinterest results (and no, I don’t think the Pinterest’s search engines are better than Google’s, but then that’s another post).

You’ll see lots of images, and when you click on one, the screen will split to highlight your choice.

Head to that link up there at the top, the one that says “Search by Image.”  Click on it to be taken to this page:

There are several basic subdivisions of this page, and they can be helpful, at times, but I’m looking for a source that doesn’t refer me back to Pinterest.  These results are usually in the “Pages” section.  Avoid any Pinterest listings, and head for pages that have an address that starts with “https.”  You may not need to drill down like this, but in the case that you are looking for the origin of a specific image, these tips may help.

Want to find out if something has been posted from your blog?

In Google Image Search, click on the camera.

From the desktop, drag into the box a photo (or paste in the photo’s URL if you know it).  I’ll do my Christmas tree skirt, which I know has gone a lot of places.

This is the result.  While there are multiple results, most of them were for other Christmas Tree Skirts.  

But in the Pinterest results below, I did notice it’s been pinned nearly 3,000 times.  (This photo gets around.)

Another reality of the Google Image search is for personal security.  Say you want to find out where an image of your grandchild or child has gone to? Pop in their picture.  Many images are lifted from Facebook, so please be careful about what you post, and never post a child’s image without their parent’s permission.

Hope this helps in your searches.

UPDATE:  If you know how to use Boolean Operators, you can also add -Pinterest.com to your search terms.  (That’s a minus sign before the term you don’t want to show up in your search.)  I have mixed success with these, so I didn’t write them into my post, but one of my commenters mentioned it.  Try it, to see if it works for you.