How to find original links on Pinterest

Share with your friends?

I saw this little card on Pinterest the other day and knew I had to share my secret to this problem.

We’ve all been there.  You find a meal that looks amazing or a craft that is perfect for what you want to do. Then, you click on the image, and it goes no where.  What the heck?  Why oh why is it on Pinterest?

Wanna know my solution to finding the original source of the image?  Google Image Search! That little website has saved me from beating my head against the desk when a Pinterest click leads to nothing but an image on a spam page.

It lets me be a little detective to find that recipe or craft I’m dying to try.  As a bonus for bloggers, it will also let you see if someone is stealing your pictures from your website.  And, it lets you see if you missed being featured on any linky parties, too!  

There are a few ways to do this. First, if you want tons of information all about Google’s image search, Google can tell you all about here.  There’s even a video!With that same link, if you are using Firefox or Chrome, you can download an extension for either of these browsers for Google Image Search.

Just to show you how easy it really is, I’ve created a tutorial with screenshots below to show you how to find the original source of an image on Pinterest or really anywhere.

Step 1.  Find the pin on Pinterest.  Click on it and go to the source.

Step 2.  Once you go to the source of the image, right click.  If you have loaded the Google Image extension into your browser, it will show up in the right click menu and says “Search Google with this image.”  Click that.

Step 3.  You will be brought to a search page that will show all the pages with this image.  By clicking through them, you will find the original source of your crafty tutorial or recipe, etc. Isn’t that great?

Step 4.  On this image, the link I circled in RED is from when Handmade Cuddles featured my headband tutorial.  If I had not known I was being featured, I could have seen this and run over and post a big thank you for the feature.

It’s really as easy as that! Now you will never be frustrated by a Pinterest link that goes no where.

If you don’t have the extension for your browser or just don’t want to put it in your browser, you can still use Google Image Search super easy as well.  Plus, you can search for images that you have on your computer, not just ones that are on a website such as Pinterest.

Option 1:  Let’s say you saved an image on your computer a long while ago, and you want to find the source.  Go to Google Image Search.

See the little camera image (I drew a hideous red arrow pointing at it.)?  Click on that, and you can upload an image directly to search.

Then, you’ll get a list of links where you can find it.

Option 2:  You can easily search an image by using the left mouse button.  Left click and HOLD, then drag it over to the Google Image Search.  These images show doing it both on Pinterest and my blog, so you can do this on any website.  Just don’t let go of the mouse button, until you drag it into the search box for Google Image Search like below.

Then, a list of links will pop up just like you have searched up above.

It is that easy. Now go find those missing links you thought you’d never find.

Share with your friends?