Archive - December, 2009

Is Anyone Using Your Image?

Reverse image search

Searching for images that you have created on the web is easy. There is a a great handy little website called TinEye. If you are a photographer or designer, it is important to know if your images are being used without your permission. Depending on the licensing for your work, you may want to follow up with individuals or businesses who are using your work without your expressed permission.

What TinEye does is a reverse images search on the web to find out which sites are using the image, even if they have a different name for the image.

Take for example the image we use on Run Level Media.

This image is called “rlmhome.jpg” Not very SEO friendly, but I wanted to show how incredible this was with the search. So I entered the URL http://runlevelmedia.com into the query box, what it does is grabs all the images from the page of the URL that you enter. Then you simply click on the image that you want to search.

As you can see from the screen shot below it yielded 4 other websites using the same image that I’m using. Since this is stock photo it also displays on the originating source. In order to stay original, or keep people on their toes about using content against the respective licenses, it’s a great resource for any image creator.

runlevelmedia-image-search-results

For more information visit the TinEye website where they have over one billion images cached, and let us know in the comments if you found any of your own images.

Tips For Designers Using Twitter

1. Collaborate with others. Get feedback from fellow design peers and share creative ideas.

2. Follow others and spot design trends. Digg lists 100 designers to follow: http://bit.ly/6F3zMe

3. Use Twitter search. Listen out for people talking about you, your customers, or your space.

4. Ask questions, but don’t just ask questions; assist others as well when they ask you for help.

5. Look to embed Twitter services and features in your designs. Mashups are always great too!

6. Be consistent but not droll, mix your tweets with business and personal information.

7. Don’t use it as an online advert for your agency. People don’t want to hear how great you are!

8. Take it further and attend a Tweetup to meet and network with those valuable industry contacts.