Have you ever found an interesting video and wondered about its source? Finding the source of a video comes in handy when you’re trying to find similar videos or you want to learn more about a specific topic.
Using a reverse video finder, you can easily find the source of any online video in less than a minute. Keep reading to learn how to make a reverse video search.
Table of Contents
What is Reverse Video Search?
The reverse video search works in the same way keyword search works. You type a specific word in the search bar, and then Google search bots search for all the websites where this keyword appears. You can do the same thing when you’re looking for a video.
You use your content, in this case, the video, and the search engine will show you every time it’s been used and how many times it appeared online. So this will help you find the original source of a specific video and every time it was used on a social media post or any other website.
How Is Reverse Video Search Useful?
Getting information about a video using a search tool can be helpful in multiple ways.
- If you’re a video creator, you can see how many times your video has been used to assess its popularity and the quality of your content.
- You can detect the illegitimate use of your content, so you can ask for credit or have stolen videos removed.
- You can find the original high-quality copy of the video if you have a zipped version with a lower quality.
- You can find related videos from the same source if you want to know about a specific topic or want to use them for digital marketing purposes.
- If you’ve seen a small part of a video, you’ll be able to find the full version or the video source.
How Does Reverse Video Search Work?
Search engines like Google can work like a reverse video search engine and detect the pixels and colors of a video. Then Google Chrome will search different websites to find the same video or similar video content. But, this process isn’t very accurate because if a single pixel changes, the search engine won’t be able to detect the source of the video.
Moreover, with more videos being uploaded every day, Google and other search engines have to index all this content to be able to find every video. This means you won’t probably find the exact video you’re looking for.
This is why you can sometimes use a third-party tool to help you find the content you want. Here are the most common ways to do a reverse video search.
This is the fastest and easiest way to do a reverse video search because you don’t have to use any other tool. It works just like Google Image Search and it’s straightforward and fast, but the results aren’t always accurate.
So, if you don’t find the video you’re looking for, you might want to consider using another tool. Here are the steps to follow.
- Play the video you want to find the source of, and then take a screenshot of the screen using any snipping tool.
- Switch to Google Images.
- Click the camera icon and upload the screenshot you’ve taken.
- Click the Google Lens.
- The results will appear, and you can find all the articles and websites where the video appeared.
Bing
Bing is another search engine that you can use to search for images and videos. Just like Google, it has a unique visual search feature that allows you to search for visual content using an original video file.
However, it comes with the same disadvantages, as it’s inaccurate compared to other third-party tools. This is what you need to do to find your video.
- Take a screenshot of the video you want to look for.
- Open the Visual Search page and upload the screenshot.
- Bing will list all the websites that contain this screenshot or something that looks close to it.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is a directory containing more than 200 million royalty-free images. It has a practical video search tool that you can use to search for any video using screenshots by following these steps.
- Play your video and take a screenshot using a snipping tool.
- Open Shutterstock and search the menu and click Footage.
- Press the Search By Image option and upload the screenshot.
- Wait until the web pages load, and you’ll see how many times the video has been used.
Berify
Berify is a reverse image search engine that most video creators use. It has a strong algorithm that allows it to collect data from Google, Bing, and other search engines, so it will help track your video through millions of websites. It’s more precise and accurate than Google Search, so it will work for you if you want to detect how many times and where your video was used.
Unlike other methods, you need to create an account to be able to use this tool. Unfortunately, with a free account, you only get to perform five searches. If you want to search for more videos, you’ll have to pay for a premium subscription. Here are the right steps to follow.
- Go to the Berify website and create an account.
- Play your video and take a screenshot.
- Upload the screenshot and click search.
- The tool will search millions of websites to find your video and will send you an email once it’s found.
TinEye
TinEye is free if you’re using it for personal use, but it comes with limits. For commercial purposes, you’ll have to pay a monthly subscription that grants you access to unlimited searches.
The technology is advanced, as it uses detailed computer vision, image recognition, and reverse image search. You can find your video using these steps.
- Take a screenshot of your video.
- Visit the website and upload your screenshot.
- Click the magnifying glass to run a search, and the website will list all the websites where this video appears.
Wrap Up
Reverse video search is an excellent technique to help you find the source of any video and how many times it has been used. A lot of search engines and tools run this video search, the same way reverse image search is conducted, and some of them are more accurate than others.
