Finding the original context of an image

Artists, designers and researchers extensively use web research.  Images and media are saved on their hard drives for later reference or inspiration. The potential usage of the file is often not clear at the time of the downloading, and thus it's often not found necessary to save the URL of the original context where it was found.  When these files are shared with other people on workshops, all references to the original source are lost.


In MacOSX, images downloaded with the Safari browser get a "Where from" metadata attached to the image.  By selecting a downloaded file in the Finder and choosing "Get Info" you will be able to see (not copy) the URL where this file was downloaded.  If you want to use the URL without re-typing it you can use this Automator script which gives access to the file's metadata.

It's a pity that this function is not yet available on the Firefox browser (moreover, existing plugin functionality is not compatible with the latest 3.x version of Firefox).  I hope the Firefox development team will also include not only the exact URL path to the media element, but also the URL of the page where that file was linked to.  This will make it easier to find the original context of files for websites that embed files from social media tools (like Flickr and YouTube) instead of hosting their content on their own server.