Google has made it easier to search and use images legally with a usage rights filter.

Anyone can apply this filter to find images that are either in the public domain or have Creative Commons licensing.

When Google image searching, click the Search Tools menu.

There is a drop down menu labelled ‘Usage Rights’ that have the options ‘labeled for reuse’, ‘labeled for commercial use’, ‘labeled for reuse with modification’, and ‘labeled for commercial reuse with modification’.

Google is clearly aware of the internet becoming an increasingly profitable marketplace for information and image sharing, and is taking steps to ensure the work of professionals photographers and artists is protected. By ethical searchers, no less.

This filter has been available on Google since 2009, but was located in the ‘advanced search’ section, and assumingly rarely visited.

Placing the filter in a more accessible area may encourage ignorant bloggers, unethical journalists, marketers and your everyday internet user to adhere and respect the work of others.

When image searching ‘glacier’ with ‘commercial use’ as a filter, roughly 250 results came back sourced mainly from websites such as Wikipedia, Wikimedia, Flickr, Fotopedia and deviantART.

Google says it is then up to the searcher to verify the license is legitimate and check the terms of reuse, such as attribution. It then states there is no way for the search engine to check the legitimacy of licenses and are not making any representation that the content is lawfully licensed.

If you find your work unlawfully licensed on Google images, be sure to report it to the help forum where it can then be dealt with.