Google's Mobile Image Search Encouraging Theft?

Feb 24, 2011 - 9:20 am 4 by
Filed Under Google

Photographer Tristan Savatier, aka loupiote, posted a thread at the Google Webmaster Help thread saying Google's new mobile image search makes it way to easy for people to steal your images. He said it is confusing for normal people to not end up stealing your images.

Try it out and you will see.

(1) Go to Google Mobile Image Search on your mobile device or via your desktop at google.com/m/search?site=images

(2) Search for flowers or anything else

(3) Click on an image result

(4) Notice that the only way to get to the page hosting the image is to tap and scroll to the bottom of the image and click on that small link.

The link at the top, in larger font, takes you directly to the image file on that individuals server. What do you do from there? Well, leave or save the image to your phone and use it, likely without credit.

Here is an image of the screen:

Google Image Search Mobile

As you can see, that link is small and hard to reach.

Tristan suggests Google should either show the copyright details on this page and/or send the searcher to the referring page, which often has the copyright details there. But taking them to the image file doesn't contain those details and may lead to confuse people.

What do you think?

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search News

The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Jill Whalen - Content SEO Hero & Legend

Jun 22, 2025 - 1:20 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: June 20, 2025

Jun 20, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Volatility, AI Mode in Search Console, Audio Overviews and ChatGPT Search Quality

Jun 20, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Larger & Longer Issues Can Take Longer To Reverse In Google Search

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Troubleshooting On Blocking Content From AI Mode & AI Overviews

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Video Search Tests Speaker Icon With Language Label

Jun 20, 2025 - 7:31 am
Previous Story: Google Keyword Tool Counts Sometimes Wrong?