Public Domain Search - Finding Ebook Images Via Google

By Author: Philip Johnson
Total Articles: 38
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What exactly is Public Domain? A realm of free work, including music, text, videos, images, and other artwork that lacks protection of intellectual property rights. Finding images to include in your ebook is easier than ever with a simple public domain search via Google because it's packed full of them!
Performing a search on Google is second nature for many people, however the trick to doing a public domain search is knowing which images are copyrighted and which images are not. I'm going to teach you a simple trick that will help you understand the difference so you can start discovering supplemental images for your ebook today.
You are going to start this process by simply opening your web browser and going to google.com. Be sure to switch over to the Images tab. Type the specific description of the image you want in the search box. When you arrive at your images results page there will be a little icon that looks like a gear in the upper right-hand corner. Click this icon and you will see a drop-down menu displaying an array of options, including Search Settings, Advanced Search, Web History, and Search Help. ...
... You are looking for Advanced Search, so click on that option.
You will arrive at the Advanced Image Search page. The basic set up of this page is filter terms are displayed off to the left side and drop-down lists of choices for each filter is displayed off to the right side. You simply want to scroll the entire way to the bottom of the page where it displays the filter term USAGE RIGHTS. There is a list box next to this option that is pre-populated with "not filtered by license". You want to open this drop-down list box and select one of the following options:
Free to use or share
Free to use or share, even commercially
Free to use, share, or modify
Free to use, share, or modify, even commercially
The option you utilize here will depend on what you want to do with the specific image. If you do plan to sell your ebook to consumers, like most people, you will want to utilize one of the options that ends with "even commercially". If you want to alter the image in any way opt for the "modify, even commercially" choice.
Once you've decided which filter option you will be using click the Advanced Search Button. Your screen will be populated with image results. There will undoubtedly be fewer results than where originally given due to the filter, and it is likely that some of the specific search terms you utilize will return little to no results. Do not become discouraged if the specific term you were searching for returned no results. Just reword your search term into a more general sense.
Once you find an image you want to include in your ebook simply click on it. Google will bring you to a preview page of the image. You will want to right click on the image and from the drop-down list select Save Image As...
The general rule of thumb here is to cite the source you are getting the image from. Depending on the source some may require that they receive credit and others may not. You can find out more about the specific requirements for the image at the website it is linked to. However, I use the quicker route and just choose to cite the source to save time.
Citing the source is extremely easy because Google does all the work for you. When you are in the image preview box, off to the right side you will see the image Name and Web Address where the image is located on the internet. You just want to copy and paste this information into a document. When you go to use the image in your ebook be sure to include this citation in a small caption underneath the image itself with the full citation, both name and web address. Basically the idea is to have a source for the image so if a reader sees the image they are given the proper information on where they can go on the web to find exactly where you got the image from.

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