8.2 Reverse Image Search Conducting a reverse image search is important as it will indicate whether or not the image or video has been posted previously. There are several reverse image search tools, but TinEye and Google Image Search are sufficient. TinEye will show you where and how frequently an image was used. Google Image Search will show similar images and, possibly, different sources that can be used for corroboration. It will also show whether that image has been used before and when this occurred. It is important to note that TinEye frequently turns up no results on content that was posted within a few days of an event or far fewer results overall than Google Image Search. Therefore, it is recommended that you run images through both tools. Sometimes, screenshots and other images need to be cropped before putting them through a reverse image search; images can be cropped in both Google Docs and Microsoft Word. This is because certain things in an image can cause the tools to focus on the wrong elements and turn up results that are not relevant or useful. Therefore, before explaining how to use each reverse image search tool, it is important to know how to effectively crop an image to yield the best results. If you are watching a video and want to run a screenshot, you should crop out the rest of the webpage around the image itself. Additionally, if your task is to identify weapons, then you may need to crop an image in order to focus on a weapon and not its surroundings. Also important is that if you are conducting reverse image searches to try and identify something, like a weapon, the results will not indicate the specific make or model. However, a reverse image search can give you an idea or clues as to what it may be. It can also produce results with similar weapons that may help you identify the model or type. See the below examples. 8.2.1.1 Example 1 - Screenshots Image 1. Here is a screenshot without any cropping. If this is put into a reverse image search, it is likely there will be no results or the results will be unusable. 48