#latest updates

January 15, 2025

Google is serving two versions of Google Images at the moment. The reviews are mixed ranging from 'works perfectly' to 'broken' and that is why. It still works on my end, making it hard to pinpoint the actual problem. My advice would be to clear your cookies until you get one that serves the version that works.

#local installation (chrome)

• uninstall any previously installed version of Google Images Restored
• download the latest version (0.9.0) ZIP file found in the releases folder.
• unzip the file and you should have a folder named googleimagesrestored_090_chrome_v3
• in Chrome, go to the extensions page URL: chrome://extensions
• enable Developer Mode (top right corner)
• drag the googleimagesrestored_090_chrome_v3 folder anywhere on the page to import it (do not delete the folder afterwards)

#old updates

August 28, 2024 - the extension is currently either completely or intermittently broken. they're changing a bunch of random stuff so any fix now i'm assuming will just be broken again soon. will take a look at it once the backend stops changing.

June 9, 2024 - release 0.9.0 fixes an unwanted side panel bug

April 17, 2024 - release 0.8.9 brings back related images with a more stable method

April 17, 2024 - another bandaid release 0.8.8 which im assuming wont last long, am still looking for some kind of longer term solution

April 17, 2024 - google circumvented the thing that was making this extension work in the last version. extension is currently broken.

April 11, 2024 - survival mode version 0.8.7 brings back "related images" but still need to find a better fix

April 11, 2024 - 'related images' not found; google changed the backend

April 7, 2024 - 0.8.6 - bugfix on the '2 rows at top' results format.

April 6, 2024 - 0.8.5 - bugfix, first thumbnail would sometimes show up as 0 x 0 px.

April 3, 2024 - noticed another bug and updated the extension to 0.8.4, will push to the chrome web store once it allows for resubmitting extensions.

April 3, 2024 - updated the extension to 0.8.3, submitted a version to the chrome web store. might take a day or so for it to show up on there.

April 1, 2024 - the extension has gone out for everyone, google has made some changes which has caused this extension to break significantly and will require major rewriting of some code and logic. ive been messing with trying to get it working again, but unfortunately there's some pretty undesirable side effects, specifically: google no longer provides Image Size information until the entire page is loaded (1.4MB+) (whereas it used to load the image size information directly inside the thumbnails) which is causing laggy behavior. i've noticed that even without this extension, google images seems laggy, e.g. hovering over thumbnails is unresponsive and everything freezes for a second. if i end up getting this working again, it's 100% likely that the extension will have to be handled care, e.g., being mindful to wait until the page finishes loading before clicking on thumbnails, to prevent erratic behavior. if it ends up being too cumbersome i might just call it a day on this extension, but i'm taking a look at what needs to be done now. just wanted to give an update.

March 20, 2024 - this extension is still working for me, but based on reviews on the 'chrome web store' other people say it isn't working for them. i've tried downloading the latest version of chrome and putting the extension on it and it works both signed in and signed out, so unfortunately, there's nothing i can do about the situation without knowing why it's breaking for other people.

February 5, 2024 - fixed some random thing that made related images not show up. seperately, even though the layout is annoying, i find better results nowadays using yandex image search. google image search isn't what it used to be, it's honestly gotten unusuable ever since they started making it about "shopping" or whatever.

November 21, 2023 - a partial fix was added in 0.5.7 that re-enables related images for the pre NOV2023 version of googleimages. the post NOV2023 version is still unsupported as i can't get google to serve me that version any more.

November 16, 2023 - this extension is currently experiencing widespread outage. Google is still in the process of changing things around, making it futile to put out any sort of fix at the moment. Once things have settled down I'll see if there's anything that can be done to fix it.

#Google Images Restored

#Overview

This extension attempts to make Google Images look and feel like it did before they changed everything on August 6th, 2019.

Note: in mid-2022, Google got rid of the normal "search by image" results and replaced it with "Google Lens" results. If you want to revert it back to how it used to be, please use the extension Disable Google Lens as well.

#Installation

This extension is available on Chrome Web Store.

It is also available as a Firefox Add-On.