The loss of a valuable source searching tool
As of sometime between 17th (last time I used it) to 27th June 2019 (discovery and revelation), the link https://redirect.media.tumblr.com/image?url=, tremendously helpful in navigating the unmapped lands that is the Tumblr image source search paths, have ceased to work. I commemorate this tool with the Medal of Guidance and a full post on here, breaking my lurk status, explaining the various acts that this tool had helped me.
Before I met this most useful tool, I've had trouble moving through the landscape of Tumblr. The images rarely show up on traditional source searching tools, like Google Image, Tineye. Even if there is an entry, the page they found the image on is likely just a reblog. What's worse, Google and Tineye may only give the home page of an account, or a random page within, leaving the desired source buried within the deep abyss of the archives. In a blog that reblogs a lot, or is very active, this search is exhausting, soul-crushing, and tedious. There might even be a chance that the page Google or Tineye gives you is blocked from browsing due to the December Purge of Tumblr back in 2018. The only clue, consistent across all the source searching engines, available to me, is the image link. Tumblr, however, has no way to access the blog or page from image URL alone. If I wanted to brute force the tags and see if I can test my luck and score the page, Tumblr has mountains of images and images to find through while the original artist might not even had tagged their creation with the ones I'm searching for. Tumblr had always been a infuriating terrain to pass, until I stumble upon this tool.
https://redirect.media.tumblr.com/image?url= is a tool where if you put in the image link of a picture, it'll redirect you to its blog page. This tool solved every problem I've had with Tumblr's navigation. When I first discovered this link, I immediately recognized its meaning to me and overjoyed. Hours of long scrolling through useless posts, all vanished away through this simple tool. It had been the best discovery to me since when I found iqdb.org. How the link will work is that, a tumblr image link is https://66.media.tumblr.com/(a long string of characters)/tumblr_(long string).(file name) Removing the https://66.media.tumblr.com part and leaving in the slash, appending it to https://redirect.media.tumblr.com/image?url= will give you the blog that the image appeared on. It is simple and useful, which is why, in my utmost regret to annouce, that this tool no longer works.
This tool had helped me on countless searches for the original artist of an artwork. I had owed many successful searches to this most useful, yet less known, link. I had tried to ask Tumblr to reinstate it, but right now, the link remains dead. I hope in the future, you might come back, friend, and help me once more, in my journey to find the rightful artist for any image I come across.