New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on December 27, 2021) follows:
As of 2021, there are more than 3.2 billion internet users worldwide. Having said that that, more than 64% use Google Chrome to browse the internet.
Undoubtedly, Chrome has been dominating the web browser app niche for years now, thanks to the developers constantly dishing out new features and bringing performance improvements.
Google recently updated the app with a couple of fixes for some bugs. But as it turns out, the developers also replaced the Search Image with Google feature with Search Image with Google Lens.
The Search Google for Image feature allowed users to reverse search for images using Google search, with some saying that it was one of the reasons why they used Chrome in the first place.
You can see in the image below how the new option looks like for those using Google Chrome on desktop:
Apparently, Chrome users are really frustrated with Google’s decision since Search with Lens sometimes does not show up the relevant results for the image or shows no results at all.
Users say that the feature was allegedly first released for the Android version of Chrome and then added to the desktop version of the app.
Chrome users say that that searching images using Lens is not as good as it was with Google Images. Now, many are wondering how to revert to Search Images using Google instead of the new Lens search.
Thankfully, we have found a bunch of workarounds that seem to help Chrome users to use Search Images with Google instead of Search with Google Lens.
Workaround 1
A bunch of users said that they were able to see the Search Image with Google option if they tried searching it in Incognito mode.
Workaround 2
For those using Google Chrome on desktop, disabling the enable-lens-region-search flag seems to be doing the trick for now.
However, we want to remind you that Google often loves to remove or modify flags like these, like how they did with the Tab Groups flag, so enjoy till it lasts.
Workaround 3
If the aforementioned workarounds are not working, you can try using an extension that allows you to search images using your favorite search engine.
Update 1 (March 12)
12:07 pm (IST): One of our readers suggested a plugin that will bring back the search by image option into the drop-down menu in Google Chrome. You can download it from here.
Thanks for the tip: Devin Devon!
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