TOOL TUESDAY: Find that Photo with TinEye Reverse Image Search

October 4, 2011 by Kerri Karvetski

Tool Tuesday features digital tools I actually use and recommend to my clients. No one pays me to say these things. I just like sharing.

A few weeks ago I was putting together a presentation and found an image on my hard drive that I really loved. Being a firm believer in obeying copy rights, I wanted to give proper credit for using the photo.

Problem was, no matter how I searched on Flickr (that’s where I find most of my photos), I couldn’t find the photo again. Then I remembered TinEye.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You give it a photo (via upload or URL), and it seeks out a match. TinEye finds exact and altered copies of the images that you submit, including those that have been cropped, color adjusted, resized, heavily edited or slightly rotated.

Truth is I had bookmarked TinEye a long time ago and never had an opportunity to use it. Just before my presentation I read Who Is This Man, and Why Is He Screaming? about a shy photographer named Noam Galai who discovered that people all over the world were using his scream self-portrait without attribution.

He used TinEye as his image detective to retrace his photo’s journey to advertisements, street protests, t-shirts and more in Spain, Iran, Mexico, England – about 40 countries. See Stolen Scream for his version of the story.

Noam’s story prompted me give TinEye a test run. The tool passed with flying colors, cutting my search from minutes to seconds.

In addition to the web search, TinEye has browser add-ons for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. It also lets you sort results and share them on Facebook, Twitter, via email and on other social networks.

WHY USE TINYEYE

I used TinEye to find out where an image came from. Other uses include:

Research or track the appearance of an image online
Find higher resolution versions of an image
Discover modified or edited versions of an image

TinEye is free and fun. Be sure to bookmark it…I bet someday you’ll need it.

Posted in General, Photos, Search | Comments

Google gathers nonprofit offerings under one, big umbrella

March 17, 2011 by Kerri Karvetski

This week, Google announced a revamped Google for Nonprofits program, a suite of services and resources that will help nonprofits expand their impact.

The biggest change is that now there is one application for all of Google’s nonprofit offerings. Previously, you had to apply separately for a Google AdWords Grant ($10k/month free advertising), nonprofit YouTube account (no ads), Google mapping technologies and Google Apps.

This single application not only streamlines the process, it lets nonprofits know about the other important resources available to them.

Also new is the Google Nonprofit Marketplace, a place to find Google-vetted technology partners to help nonprofits implement Google AdWord campaigns, map technologies and more at a free or discounted rate. There’s about 35 vendors listed already from all over the world – US, Canada, Israel, Italy, Russia, Norway, UK and Philippines, to name a few.

Also check out Google’s library of case studies and the Google Nonprofits Blog.

Posted in Grants, Search, Tools, Video | Comments

My 3 Favorite Nonprofit Technology Grants

May 12, 2010 by Kerri Karvetski

photo credit: Photos8.com

When it comes to online technology, it’s a big, confusing and often times expensive world out there for nonprofits. Fortunately, there are some truly spectacular grant opportunities to ease the financial burden of deploying new technology and tactics.

Here are the technology grants that I recommend to my clients again and again.

1. Google Grants

Google gives $10k per month AdWords grants to qualified 501c3s. Nonprofits can use the grants for fundraising, acquisition, advocacy campaigns, events and education campaigns.

Recently, the Google Grants Blog, which I highly recommend reading and subscribing to, asked grantees to share the stories of how Google Grants have made a different in their organizations. A few excerpts:

National Marrow Donor Program Increased Donor Leads

“Our Google grant is helping us reach potential donors that we may not otherwise…visitors referred by Google ads are better qualified, as they spend more time on site, view more pages and are more likely to enter online registration than the average visitor.”

VolunteerMatch Raised Awareness

“Our Google Grant gives VolunteerMatch the additional reach and the awareness we need to sustain network growth. Knowing we have the resources to raise awareness of our services for Google search users who are looking to volunteer or engage volunteers is priceless.”

GOOGLE GRANT BONUS: If you are a member of NTEN, you get expedited Google Grant application processing. It’s one of the many advantages of joining.

2. YouTube Nonprofit Channel

YouTube offers special channels to qualified nonprofits at no charge. Here’s what you get:

Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity
The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout “Donate” button
Listing on the Nonprofit channels and the Nonprofit videos pages
Ability to add a Call-to-action overlay on your videos to drive campaigns
Posting a video opportunity on the YouTube Video Volunteers platform to find a skilled YouTube user to create a video for your cause.

DON’T SKIP THIS ONE. The benefits are really powerful – the overlay in particular allows you to promote your donation or text messaging campaign right in the video. Check out the inspiring work these nonprofits are doing on their YouTube nonprofit channels:

DISCLOSURE: Amnesty US is a client of mine, though I do not work on their video channel.

3. Flip Video Spotlight

If you don’t know what a Flip video camera is, you are in for a treat. It’s genius.

No bigger than an iPod, it’s a video recorder completely streamlined for beginners. It plugs right into your computer and comes with simple video editing software.

Nonprofits can buy one camera and get one free with the Flip Video Spotlight program. Once you have access to the store, you can simply reorder.

A producer friend of mine was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the video you can produce with the Flip. He’s thinking about using the Flip for a student contest during a film festival he produces.

Nonprofits like Save the Bay and PBS use the Flip to document and share their work with donors and potential supporters.

You can read about how other orgs are using the Flip in the Flip Video Spotlight Case Studies.

So, these are my 3 favorites. What are your favorite nonprofit technology grants?

Posted in Grants, Search, Video | Comments