Are you trying to locate the source of a particular video? Well then reverse video search can help you.
Have you ever come across a video online and wanted to know its origin? Or maybe you’ve seen a viral clip and wondered if it’s real or fake? Reverse video search helps answer these questions by allowing you to track down a video’s source, verify its authenticity, or find similar content online.
What Is Reverse Video Search?
Reverse video search is a technique that helps users find the original source of a video or similar clips by analyzing frames, metadata, or unique video patterns. Since traditional search engines like Google don’t allow direct video uploads for searching, alternative methods like reverse image search on video frames and specialized tools are used instead.
Why is Reverse Video Search Important?
- Verifying Authenticity: Helps check if a video is real or manipulated (important for fact-checking news and viral videos).
- Finding the Original Source: Useful for identifying the creator of a video, whether for crediting purposes or copyright issues.
- Detecting Plagiarism & Stolen Content: Many content creators use reverse video search to see if their work has been used without permission.
- Discovering Higher-Quality Versions: Helps find original high-resolution versions of a video instead of compressed, low-quality reuploads.
Essential Statistics & Facts
- A 2023 report by the Reuters Institute for Journalism found that 60% of online misinformation stems from manipulated videos.
- The rise of deepfakes and AI-generated content has made reverse video search more essential than ever.
How To Perform A Reverse Video Search On Google?
Using Reverse Image Search on Video Frames
A common way to reverse search a video is by extracting key frames (screenshots) and searching them using reverse image search tools.
To perform reverse search for a video on Google, follow these steps:
1. Firstly, play the video that you want to run reverse video search for. Pause the video and save a screenshot.
2. Open a new tab on Google Chrome and click on Images on the top-right corner.
3. Once you see the search box, click on the camera/lens icon. Or click here to directly open Google Images.
4. When you see the box, click on Upload A File.
5. Select the saved screenshot of the video and click Open.
Google will return the relevant search results on the right side. You can click on Find Image Source to see web pages associated with that video screenshot.
How To Perform A Reverse Video Search On Bing?
1. Save the screenshot of the video (as discussed above in Step-1 in How to reverse video search Google).
2. Open Bing Visual Search.
3. Click on the camera or lens icon, and then click on Browse.
4. Then upload the screenshot.
Bing will return relevant results categorized as: (i) Pages with this image (ii) Related Content.
How To Perform A Reverse Video Search On Yandex?
1. Take a screenshot of the video (as suggested earlier in this post).
2.Go to Yandex Image Search and click on Images.
3. Now click the camera icon on the screen.
4. Moving on, click on Select File and upload the screenshot image to see results.
Yandex will show you the details about image including:
- What the image appears to contain
- Available sizes the picture is available in
- Text in the image
- Sites hosting the image
- Relevant results
You can also access the results from separate tabs on the top: About the image, Similar images and Sites.
How To Perform A Reverse Video Search by Using Metadata & Video Hashes
Videos contain metadata (hidden information like timestamps, locations, and camera settings). If this metadata is intact, it can be used to track a video’s origin.
How to Check Video Metadata:
- Use Metadata Tools:
- ExifTool (Extracts detailed metadata)
- Metadata2Go (Online tool for quick analysis)
- Check Video Hashes:
- Tools like ffmpeg generate a unique hash for each video.
- Hashes help track copies and identify reuploads.
⚠ Limitations: Some social media platforms (like Twitter and TikTok) strip metadata, making this method less effective.
Advantages Of Reverse Video Search
Here are 5 big favors reverse search for a video can do to you:
- Helps Find Original Video Source
This is the primary benefit of running a reverse search for a video. With this feature, you can get the site results and image results to discover where it originally came from. So now you know where to head to locate a source for citation and other purposes.
- Helps Explore Similar Videos
For times when you want to fetch similar video results, this feature is a boon. Many times we might not know what search terms to enter to get a particular video, this feature can come handy.
- Helps Discover Full Version Of Video
Have you stumbled upon a part of or some interesting short clip and want to discover its full-length video? Then reverse video search will assist you in this task. Make sure to research thoroughly and compare results from various sources for this purpose.
- Helps Find Duplicate Videos
Reverse search for a video is a practically feasible way to ensure that your content isn’t being used without your permission. It retrieves results where the searched video is available or posted.
- Helps Confirm Authenticity
These days anything and everything is being published online. Reverse search for videos provides detailed analysis and relevant results which can assist in:
- confirming the source a video is coming from and
- full version of the video
which helps differentiate between fake and real video clip/s.
How Does Reverse Video Search Work?
Search engines facilitate reverse search for videos by analyzing pixels, colors and contents of a video screenshot. The results search engines return are either same or similar. Now what results you’ll get depend on whether the video is indexed or not:
| Indexed video | Same results |
| Non-indexed video | Similar results |
The process with which search engines retrieve video results for reverse search is called content-based visual information retrieval (CBVIR). Similarly image-based reverse searches work on Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) and query-based reverse searches work on query by image content (QBIC) systems. Search engines refer to the indexed database and return the results that match to the video screenshot features including:
- Colors
- Pixels
- Audio quality
- Metadata
Based on these factors, search engines fetch results for you. Furthermore, it also depends on the user feedback.
Best Reverse Video Search Tools
1. Google Lens (Best for General Video Searches)
🔹 How it Works: Upload a video screenshot, and Google Lens finds similar images and video sources.
✅ Pros: Free, easy to use, integrated into Google Search.
❌ Cons: Doesn’t directly support video uploads.
2. Berify (Best for Tracking Stolen Videos & Images)
🔹 How it Works: Uses reverse image search across multiple databases to track stolen video frames.
✅ Pros: Searches across Google, Bing, Yandex, and more; stores past searches.
❌ Cons: Paid tool after limited free searches.
3. InVID & WeVerify (Best for Fact-Checking & News Verification)
🔹 How it Works: Extracts keyframes from videos and lets you search them in various search engines.
✅ Pros: Free, designed for journalists, useful for debunking misinformation.
❌ Cons: Requires manual work (extracting frames).
4. Yandex Image Search (Best for Finding Video Sources in Russia & Eastern Europe)
🔹 How it Works: Upload an image (video frame), and Yandex finds visually similar results.
✅ Pros: Often finds better matches than Google or Bing.
❌ Cons: Mainly focused on Russian content; UI is not always user-friendly.
5. TinEye (Best for Tracking Duplicate Video Frames)
🔹 How it Works: Uses reverse image search to track screenshots from videos.
✅ Pros: Powerful for image-based searches, good for finding video reuploads.
❌ Cons: Doesn’t support actual video search.
6. Bing Visual Search (Best Alternative to Google Lens)
🔹 How it Works: Allows users to search images (including video screenshots) to find similar content.
✅ Pros: Free, works well for finding similar videos.
❌ Cons: Less powerful than Yandex and Google Lens.
7. Shutterstock Reverse Search (Best for Finding Stock Video Footage)
🔹 How it Works: Allows users to upload an image or screenshot to find stock videos.
✅ Pros: Great for identifying licensed videos and stock footage.
❌ Cons: Focuses only on Shutterstock’s library.
8. Pixsy (Best for Copyright Protection & Image Tracking)
🔹 How it Works: Helps creators track and report stolen video frames and images.
✅ Pros: Notifies users when their content appears online.
❌ Cons: Primarily for copyright enforcement, not general search.
9. SauceNAO (Best for Anime & Niche Video Content)
🔹 How it Works: Specializes in reverse-searching anime, art, and other unique media.
✅ Pros: Great for identifying anime, manga, and niche video content.
❌ Cons: Less effective for mainstream video searches.
10. SocialCatfish (Best for Finding People in Videos)
🔹 How it Works: Helps track video sources related to social media and dating scams.
✅ Pros: Useful for identifying fake profiles and verifying video sources.
❌ Cons: Requires a paid subscription for full results.
If you’re looking for the best overall tool, Google Lens, Yandex, and Berify are great options. If you need fact-checking, InVID is the best choice, while Pixsy is great for copyright protection.
💡 Tip: For the most accurate results, take multiple screenshots from different parts of the video and search them across multiple tools.
Use Cases for Reverse Video Search
- Verifying Video Authenticity
- Journalists and fact-checkers use reverse video search to detect fake news and deepfake videos.
- Example: In 2022, fact-checkers used InVID to prove a viral war footage clip was actually from a video game.
- Finding Original Sources
- Content creators use reverse search to find and credit the original video owner.
- Brands use it to track unauthorized use of their promotional videos.
- Detecting Plagiarism & Copyright Violations
- YouTubers and filmmakers use tools like Berify to track unauthorized reuploads.
- Musicians and video artists check if their work has been reused without permission.
- Identifying Fake News & Misinformation
- Reverse search helps confirm if shocking viral clips are real or manipulated.
- Example: In 2023, AI-generated fake news videos were widely spread, making verification crucial.
- Finding High-Quality Versions of Videos
- Often, viral clips are compressed and reuploaded at low resolution.
- Reverse searching can help find the original high-quality version.
Limitations & Challenges of Reverse Video Search
While powerful, reverse video search has some drawbacks:
- Inconsistent Results: Not all tools index videos the same way.
- No Direct Video Uploads: Most search engines rely on image frames.
- Metadata Stripping: Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter remove metadata.
- AI & Deepfakes: Reverse search struggles with AI-generated fake videos.
Future of Reverse Video Search
With the rise of AI, reverse video search is evolving:
- AI-powered tools are improving video pattern recognition.
- Social media platforms may introduce built-in reverse search features.
- Blockchain technology could help track video authenticity and ownership.
According to a 2024 study by MIT, AI-powered video search accuracy is expected to increase by 40% within the next five years.
Wrapping Up
Reverse video search is a powerful method for fact-checking, copyright protection, and video discovery. While Google and Bing don’t support direct video uploads, tools like Berify, InVID, and Yandex offer effective solutions.
🔹 Best Practices:
- Always extract multiple video frames for better accuracy.
- Try multiple tools (Google Lens, Yandex, Berify).
- Stay updated as AI-powered search tools improve.
Want to try reverse video search? Start by taking a screenshot of a video and uploading it to Google Lens or TinEye! 🎥🔍
