Google starting Friday has brought about a significant change it its image search engine. The search giant has removed the view image option from that appeared even since the existence of Google images. Overall, the removal of the view image button from search has its own pros and cons. The key goal behind removing this option is to basically cut down on instances of stealing images without giving credit to the source, which has been on a rise lately. So, although on one hand the initiative is for good, but then, it also has its drawbacks like it is now difficult for the general public to download images from Google. But, overall, it is good to see Google protecting photographers and driving traffic to websites.
Google has long been under fire from publishers and photographers who complained of people stealing their pictures without giving a proper credit. Instances of stealing pictures from Google and using them without giving proper credit to the source publishers or photographers are very common these days. And by removing the view image option from image search, Google is aiming towards curbing these issues. On one hand, the thought behind the move is for good, but it is also creating a lot of problems for people while they are trying to download images from Google.
Earlier, when we had the view images option, it was way easier to download images. Now with the removal of the option, Google makes it slightly difficult (read annoying) to save pictures. Previously, to save images from Google, all we had to do is click on the “view image” option on the right hand side of the page, right click on the picture and then save it. But now, with the removal of the option, Google now wants us to click on the “Visit” option, go to the source website, and right click on the image and only then save the picture.
Google’s intention behind the move seems to be two — either stop people from stealing pictures or drive them to the source website of the image, so that atleast the website can serve ads and get revenue. In the second instance, people are also more likely to see the associated copyright information, if there’s any.
It can’t be denied that the change in the Google images is essentially actually meant to irritate users. This is because, with the view image option we could open the image alone. But now, with the removal of this option, we would need to take some additional steps to save an image, wait for the source website to load, which is not only frustrating but also time consuming.
Sometimes, to download these images from the source website, we may have to wait until the site loads, and scroll through it to find the image. There are also times when a certain publisher may have disabled the ability to right click and save the image. That being the case, it will make more difficult for people to steal images from other sites. So, the removal of the view image option is surely a good news for the publishers and also for the photographers, but annoying for a person trying to download an image, thanks to the additional steps to follow.
It is noteworthy that even though the “view image” option has been removed, there are a lot more ways to get the images saved. For instance, to save an image we can directly right click on the image, and click on view image or save image option to download the image, however that may compromise a bit on the quality. There’s also an option called “Open tab in new window” this will directly open the source website, from where we can right click and save the image.
Courtesy: By India Today, Source link
