Google has removed "View Image" and search by image from image search results

[Nevander]

Apparently due to some kind of agreement with the devil Getty Images, Google removed the button that hotlinks directly to the image in search results. This is a big problem because it makes viewing images and downloading them harder than it needs to be and you can't right click the button to open the image in a new tab anymore. You also can't quickly and easily search by the image in question in one click either.

 

I really don't understand the point since you can still right click the image and view or save so long as the site doesn't block hotlinking themselves, the only problem is this makes it view in the current tab. They aren't going to stop people from stealing images, they aren't doing any good here.

 

This is just another stupid thing that is happening in this stupid world we live in.

[[McD] James]

Here you go.

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/view-image/jpcmhcelnjdmblfmjabdeclccemkghjk

[Nevander]

Yea... I'm on Firefox.

[Koko Ricky]

As a media artist, I constantly use Google for reference. I really don't appreciate this process now being unnecessarily difficult.

[Vorpal]

Huh dont all browsers have a "open image in separate tab" or "save image as" function? Still works 100% for me on the image search results, and they are full resolution and from the source, as opposed to watered-down versions hosted by google.

[seed]

3 minutes ago, Vorpal said:

Huh dont all browsers have a "open image in separate tab"

They do.

 

I noticed the removal of the button as well, I initially thought my browser broke or something honestly, but apparently that's not the case. I don't get why they did this either since you can still just right-click on the image and use ^ .

[DMPhobos]

1 hour ago, Nevander said:

This is a big problem because it makes viewing images and downloading them harder than it needs to be and you can't right click the button to open the image in a new tab anymore.

Well you can still right click the image and open it in a new tab, but i wouldn't be surprised if they removed such feature

[ReX]

1 hour ago, Nevander said:

Apparently due to some kind of agreement with the devil Getty Images, Google removed the button that hotlinks directly to the image in search results..... and you can't right click the button to open the image in a new tab anymore.

It might have something to do with copyrights. Under each image is this:

 

Images may be subject to copyright

 

I don't recall seeing this before.

 

Also, images can, indeed, be opened in a new tab [at least in Google Chrome].

[Dragonfly]

Open image in new tab, as DMPHobos said. I didn't even notice the feature was removed as I do that by habit already. ;)

[snapshot]

Ew this makes it a bit more annoying to download images or get direct links, at least there's a plugin now.

[Captain Ventris]

I just assumed I was going crazy when that option seemingly vanished, so at least I know that’s not the case?

[Novaseer]

God, this is going to make my school work so much easier.

 

sarcasm intensifies

[silentzorah]

Firefox: Right click image -> View Image

 

You're welcome.

[Neurosis]

I like how people just brush it off. Like yeah, we obviously know workarounds for this (thanks but no thanks), and we're not so lazy that we need it anyway. However, I can't help but feel the way I do when Facebook or YouTube or last.fm makes a big change without telling us about it or even talking with us about it. Yeah I get it. It's a business. They don't care about us, and they don't have to tell us or talk to us if they don't want to. As long as they continue to make money, right? And we'll continue to use it because there's no good alternative, so we shrug it off and just continue with it.

 

But I prefer when people are concise and honest about what they're gonna do/what they are doing, especially businesses. Did google ever once warn us ahead of time? Does it not seem like an impersonal and shady thing to do? The internet is always changing but I wonder if it might become something entirely different soon...and not necessarily for the best. 

[Doomkid]

isn't "impersonal and shady" Google's official tagline though? They're just living up to the promise

[Linguica]

Frankly the fact that Google Images has managed to remain more or less unchanged for over 15 years has been a pretty unlikely event. Google Images' entire reason for existing was to allow people to easily browse and download catalogues of artwork created and copyrighted by people who didn't ever consent to allowing Google to reproduce their images. You can say "oh well they're just hotlinking images that are already publicly accessible on some other webpage" but trusting in judges to find in your favor in a copyright fair use defense is pretty shaky ground to base your entire business model on.

 

Somewhat ironically, there is also a legal challenge going on *right now* regarding hotlinking / embedding of someone else's copyrighted image, which has the potential to flip the table on everything we've taken for granted since the early days of the world wide web: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-rules-news-publishers-violated-copyright-by-embedding-tweets-tom-brady-photo-1085342

[Red]

5 hours ago, Ajora said:

Here you go.

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/view-image/jpcmhcelnjdmblfmjabdeclccemkghjk

Blessed

[CARRiON]

7 hours ago, Ajora said:

Here you go.

 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/view-image/jpcmhcelnjdmblfmjabdeclccemkghjk

Crisis averted. Have a star.

 

[Lila Feuer]

Lmao this timeline sucks, likewise will use the plugin until that disappears too. Before you know it you won't be able to embed anything anymore and sites like Imgur will cease to exist.

E: 
 

Quote

 

It might have something to do with copyrights. Under each image is this:

 

Images may be subject to copyright

 

I don't recall seeing this before.

 

It's said that for a while now, nevertheless this won't make any difference. Probably just long enough to get the legal types off their back before they come back again, while thieves will continue to do what they've always been doing. You're just screwing over the average user now, like you always have.

 

Edited February 19, 2018 by cyan0s1s

[Bauul]

4 hours ago, Neurosis said:

However, I can't help but feel the way I do when Facebook or YouTube or last.fm makes a big change without telling us about it or even talking with us about it.

Given this was part of legal settlement with Getty Images, it's not that surprising we didn't hear about it in advance. Getty could have said "no we don't accept that" and the change never would have seen the light of day (although likely would have been replaced by something more severe).

 

I highly doubt Google wanted to do this, but it was likely either this or Google start charging for using Google Images and paying Getty that way.

[Nevander]

I still don't know why this was even part of their agreement. Is Getty Images even familiar with the internet? Obviously not, because a) plugins are already made to circumvent the changes and b) the user can circumvent the change already with context menus. Then what if right-click gets blocked? There are ways around that too! View page info or source, find the links... they can't stop us. They can't stop the people from getting what they want.

 

They should just put things back and deal with it.

[Linguica]

If it's doesn't stop anyone from doing what they want, why are people freaking out about it?

[Empyre]

11 minutes ago, Linguica said:

If it's doesn't stop anyone from doing what they want, why are people freaking out about it?

Because we now have to jump through more hoops to do what used to be so simple, and not everybody knows how to jump through those hoops.

Also because it is change, and human psychology causes to tend to perceive change as loss, even if it is an improvement (which this isn't).

[Halfblind]

I haven't noticed this so much on my PC as I have on my phone browser. It is a little more challenging now to look for the full resolution images on that device.

 

Why would anyone want to pirate images from stock image sites like 'Getty Images'? Without having an account and paying for them the most that you will get is a less quality image with a watermark. It will then take you a while to remove it and be quite annoying to do so in a graphics editor. That just seems too much work to me.

 

Sites like Pinterest no longer support direct image linking anymore. You have to download the image to your device, upload it to Pinterest and then paste in the link to where you found the image. This just seems too tedious and redundant. This is if you pin images through their website and not through their app or chrome add on.

 

Edited February 20, 2018 by Halfblind

[Lila Feuer]

Yeah you got a point, I never sought out anything from Getty Images specifically.

[printz]

Seems like a return to old times, when images also weren't hotlinked by Google Images (during the bad old days of early Internet Explorer, this could even expose you to malware!). Seems like this is caused by the war on hotlinking. I understand that sites are trying to protect their business model of showing you their ads, but I still hope for a time when hotlinking anything becomes economically acceptable… Seems that Google has failed on this attempt to make it easy.

 

"Search by image" is a wonderful fact-checking / anti-impostor tool; for the sake of all that is holy, it shouldn't go away. I suppose the thread starter only means that the button from the result is gone.