I shop on a laptop. A lamp on Amazon that costs too much. A jacket in a listing photo. Something I saw on eBay and wanted to check on Temu. On my phone, that is a camera tap. On desktop, the camera icon is mostly missing.
So I built SameSame, a browser extension I still use every day. It does not send your photo to a third-party reverse-image API. It opens the visual search each store already runs - the same one their mobile apps and some out-of-stock flows use - from the page you are already on.
The desktop gap
Visual product search is not new. Amazon Lens, Temu camera search, AliExpress image search: they work because they search inside that store's catalog. That is different from Google Lens, which searches the open web and often returns a mix of blogs, pins, and shopping links.
The catch is where those tools live. Amazon's image search is a first-class feature in the shopping app. On amazon.com in a browser, it is easy to miss or simply not there, depending on the page. Temu and AliExpress follow the same pattern: obvious on mobile, buried or absent on desktop.
If you want to search by image from a laptop, the usual advice is: save the image, open the store app or a reverse-image site, upload, then repeat for the next store. That is a lot of friction for something the store already knows how to do.
The searches were already there
I did not invent a new matcher. Amazon, Temu, and AliExpress already run visual search against their own catalogs. On mobile that is the camera in the search bar. The same capability shows up in other places, including some out-of-stock and similar-items flows on the web. When a listing is unavailable, you have sometimes seen visually close alternatives. That is not a coincidence. The catalog search is already wired up. Desktop shopping just does not put a camera on every page.
Those endpoints are not a public developer API you sign up for. They are the stores' own visual search, used by their apps and a handful of desktop pages, mostly hidden from everyday browsing. SameSame calls those native searches from the page you are on, instead of shipping the image to a generic reverse-image service and hoping a shopping link comes back.
That distinction matters. A third-party reverse-image API indexes whatever it crawled. Amazon's visual search indexes Amazon. Temu's indexes Temu. You get listings from the store you asked, with that store's prices, not a screenshot of someone else's catalog.
SameSame is independent. It is not affiliated with Amazon, Temu, or AliExpress. Results come from those platforms. I do not control them, and the extension can break if they change how search works. I keep it updated because I use it.
What SameSame actually does
Three things, on purpose.
Right-click any image. On any website - a blog, a social embed, an Etsy listing, an Amazon gallery - right-click and run visual search on Amazon, Temu, or AliExpress. You do not save the file first.
Find similar on product pages. On Amazon, Temu, and AliExpress listings there is a one-click find-similar control. You are already looking at a product; this asks that store, or another of the three, for visually similar items. Useful when the price is high, the size is gone, or you want to see if the same shape exists cheaper somewhere else.
A sidebar, not a new tab. Results open in a collapsible sidebar on the original page. You can reorder or hide items while you compare. I got tired of hopping between tabs with three result pages and a fading memory of the original photo.
There are also in-page buttons on a bunch of other shops, including Etsy and eBay, so you can jump from those listings into Amazon, Temu, or AliExpress visual search without copying the image.
I built this for myself. I was already doing this dance by hand. I still use it daily. If a feature is not something I would click, it does not ship.
How I use it
A typical pass looks like this.
I am on an Amazon product page. The item is fine, the price is not. I hit find-similar, pick Temu or AliExpress, and skim the sidebar. Sometimes it is the same product. Sometimes it is a close alternative. Sometimes it is junk - visual search is not magic, and generic items confuse every matcher. I hide the noise and keep the useful rows.
Or I am reading a review with a photo, or looking at a listing on another shop. Right-click the image, search Amazon, then the same image on Temu. The sidebar stays put so I can compare without losing the page I started on.
If a result is weak, crop. The same photo that fails as a full lifestyle shot often works when the product fills the frame. Tight, front-facing, unfiltered photos still win. That is true of every visual search I have used, including the stores' own apps.
Chrome and Firefox both. The Chrome listing is featured, which is how a few people found it.
Privacy
Searches go to the stores. When you run an image search, the image is sent to Amazon, Temu, or AliExpress - the same places you would upload it in their apps. SameSame does not collect your browsing data, does not build a profile, and does not sit in the middle as a reverse-image service. On the Chrome Web Store I declare that the extension will not collect or use your data.
You are still using those retailers' search. Their own policies apply to what you send them. The extension's job is to open the search, show the results, and otherwise stay out of the way.
If you want to try it
- Site: samesame.fgiust.com
- Chrome
- Firefox
If it saves you a round of save-upload-repeat, that is the whole point. If a store you care about is missing, tell me. I built this to scratch my own itch, and the itch list is still open.
SameSame is an independent tool and is not affiliated with Amazon, Temu, or AliExpress.
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