In today’s digital age, everyone has a readily available camera at their disposal at all times. Moreover, unauthorized photos of you can rapidly propagate throughout the web without you even knowing it. Would it not be great if you did know how to do a face search on Google to find them?
At first, doing Google Face searches sounds controversial, as it may lead to privacy issues. However, many benign uses exist for face searches, including hunting for stolen or leaked photos, spotting fake profiles and online scams.
Moreover, marketers could make a Google face search to evaluate the results of marketing and public relations campaigns, following specific pictures published and shared by third parties.
This post will illustrate how to do a face search on Google from your personal computer, laptop, iOS and Android mobile devices.
Can You Do a Face Search on Google?
As the world’s top search engine, Google is the first natural place to look if you want to search for specific pictures or photographs online.
And technically, you can do a face search on Google, but there is a caveat.
The Google search image feature doesn’t focus on facial recognition. Instead, it uses reverse image search technology, matching the whole image.
Say, for example, you upload into Google an image in which you are wearing a white shirt and using a Laptop. Google might find pictures of people who look like you. However, it will also include search results of other people who wear white shirts or use laptops but don’t necessarily look like you.
Still, Google reverses image search is outstanding and is worth trying first.
You might consider more specialized facial recognition search engines If nothing comes up. Follow the link for a post we wrote, including seven such tools.
If you want to learn how to search your photos by grouping similar faces, check out our blog post: Google Face Recognition: Search by People in Your Photos.
Did you know that Google has made its cutting-edge computer vision technology available for developers to integrate into their apps and software products? Check out or Business Integration Guide on Face Detection with Google Cloud Vision API.
Also, check out our article What Is Face Detection Technology?
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Face Search Pros and Cons
Face search is a controversial issue. Check out our post about the disadvantages of facial recognition. In addition, check out our post about the benefits of facial recognition.
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- Accessibility In The Digital Age: Enhancing Connectivity For All
- The Evolution And Impact Of Human Capital Management
- 5 Ways To Avoid Phishing Attacks
- What Is AWS? Services, Costs And Benefits
Moving on, let’s now focus on how to do a facial recognition search on Google.
How to Do a Facial Recognition Search on Google
Firstly, we will explain how to do an image reverse search from a personal computer (PC) or laptop:
1. Go to Google.com
2. Click on the “Images” menu at the top of the screen.
On the other hand, you can skip these steps and go directly to “images.google.com,” which will lead you to the same page.
3. On the Google Images screen, click on the camera icon.
4. You can either provide an URL for the image or upload it. Click on the “upload an image” tab.
5. Click the “Choose File” button.
6. The file explorer will start. Select a file from your PC or Laptop. Afterward, the image will begin uploading.
7. Google will present search results visually similar images relevant to the one you uploaded.
Google Face Search iPhone
There are two ways of making Google reverse image searches from Apple smartphones. You can use the phone’s web browser (For example, Safari), go to Google Images. Alternatively, you can download the Google App, which includes Google Lens, their image recognition technology.
Searching on an iPhone Using Safari
For this example, we will use the Safari web browser. Follow these steps:
1. Open the Safari web browser and go to Google.com. Click on the “Images” menu on the top of the page to go to Google Images. Similarly, you can directly browse to images.google.com to reach the same destination.
The Mobile version of the Google Image search website doesn’t allow image uploads. Therefore, you need to switch to the desktop version of the page.
2. Tap the AA button at the top left of the screen on the Safari Browser.
3. A menu will appear. Tap the “Request Desktop Website” option.
4. Once you reach the desktop version of Google Image, tap the camera icon.
5. Press the “Upload an Image” tap.
6. Tap the “Choose File” button.
7. You may pick an image from your phone’s photo library, browse the phone’s file system or even take a picture using the camera. Tap the “Photo Library” menu option.
8. At this point, you may select an image from your phone’s library. Once you have done so, the image will begin uploading to Google search.
9. When uploading finishes, Google will search and present relevant search results from the Internet. Just as searching from a PC or Laptop, it includes a list of websites and a link to visually similar images.
Reverse Image Search on an iPhone Using the Google App
Before you start, download and install the Google App from the App Store.
Afterward, follow these steps.
1. Open the Google App and when you reach the main screen, tap the camera button.
2. Google Lens will start. Tap the picture icon to select an image from your photo library. Likewise, you may also take a picture using your phone’s camera.
3. The Google app will upload the picture and present relevant search results, including websites’ URLs and images from the Internet.
A remarkable feature of Google Lens is that it can identify relevant hotspots inside your images, for instance, an object, and focus your search on them. Try it out!
Google Face Search Android
On Android, you can also perform reverse image searches on Google using a web browser or the Google App.
Searching on Android Using the Chrome Browser
For this example, you need to download and install the Google Chrome browser from Google Play. Then, follow these steps:
1. Open Chrome and navigate to Google.com. Click on the “Images” menu at the top of the page to go to Google Images. Similarly, you can directly browse images.google.com.
To continue, you need to switch to the desktop version of the page, as the mobile version of Google Search doesn’t support image upload.
2. Tap the Google Chrome menu button (The three dots).
3. A menu will appear. Tap the “Desktop Website” option.
4. Once you reach the desktop version of Google Image, tap the camera icon.
5. Press the “Upload an Image” tap. Also, you may paste the URL of an image from the Internet.
6. Tap the “Choose File” button.
7. Tap the “Documents” action. Tapping the camera icon is also an option to take a picture with the phone’s camera.
8. Select an image from your Android phone’s library. Google will search and present relevant search results from the Internet. Just as searching from a PC or Laptop, it includes a list of websites and a link to visually similar images.
Reverse Image Search on Android Using the Google App
First, you need to download and install the Google App from Google Play.
Afterward, follow these steps.
1. Open the Google App and tap the camera button when you reach the main screen.
2. Google Lens will start. Tap the picture icon to select an image from your photo library. Likewise, you may also take a picture using your phone’s camera.
3. The Google app will upload the picture and present relevant search results, including websites’ URLs and images from the Internet.
On Android, Google Lens also singles out hotspots in your images. From there, you can select a specific object or part of the photo to sharpen your search.
Start Making Face Searches on Google
In this post, we revealed how to do a face search on Google. Furthermore, we introduced several ways to accomplish this, using a PC, Laptop, iOS or Android device.
We encourage you to take action now, start using this great Google feature. Search for photos of you that could have been stolen, leaked or taken by someone without your consent. You could be surprised by what you find.
If you don’t find any valuable matches at first, check out our post about eight facial recognition search engines.
Have you made a Google face search? Did you find relevant matches? Please share your comments below.
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