Click and Drag feature in Google Image Search

One cool feature that Google has recently started is the click and drag feature within a Google Image Search (GIS). Many of you may have noticed this one on the GIS page under the search bar and this may be old news, but to those who haven’t used this feature yet: it is really cool. It is very useful in finding very similar images without having to know the description of the picture. It is great for finding out information about specific pictures such as, location, artist, photographer, publisher, date etc as well. (NOTE: Internet Explorer users may have difficulty completing a search this way. If it does not work then try using a different Web Browser i.e. Mozilla or Chrome).
In this example I will make the search under the generic topic of “nature.” So I type the word “nature” into GIS and it provides millions of pictures of course. I scroll down to a picture that I find interesting, this neat canyon looking one on the right.

Then I click and hold my mouse over this image and drag it toward the search bar. Google automatically recognizes what I am doing and a box appears that says “Search by image. Drop Image Here.”

Drag the picture and release it in this box and Google will make a search based on the characteristics of this picture. From here I find out that this picture was taken in Glen Canyon by Michael Melford and displayed in National Geographic in 2006. I am also linked to dozens of other pictures taken in Glen Canyon and several relevant websites are presented including www.nationalgeographic.com/ and blogs that are pertinent to this topic.

This is also really useful when trying to track down, say, an artist. This time I looked up “cool paintings” and GIS provided me with tons of awesome paintings. I decided to click on this one with the horses coming out of the mountain so I clicked and dragged it into the search box.

This time it provided me with tons of similar pictures to browse as well as the artist who created the painting: Jim Warren. The links provide me with access to purchasing his art as well as to other pictures by him and his fine art studio.

These are just 2 very simple examples of how to use the click and drag feature in Google Image Search. I hope you found this helpful.
And this is the perfect time to suggest one of my personal favorite searches on GIS: weird animals!
There are many other searches that the Drop and Drag feature is useful for in Google Image Search. Try looking up: healthy food, desserts, etc and drag and drop to find out the recipes!
Any other useful searches? Please post them below.