If you are like me who relies on free stock images from ‘Google Images’ off and on, then, the new changes must have stunned you a little.
Yesterday morning while I was giving finishing touches to my new post, I pulled Google to look for the images of a few books. And, surprise! There is no ‘view image’ button for any of the images. I thought something was wrong with my Chrome browser as I hadn’t updated it. So I run the update, restart and the problem persists.
As a logical next step, I google the problem and get to know that Google has changed things around its images platform.
What are the changes?
- ‘View Image’ button has vanished (right)
- You now see this subtle ‘subject to copyright’ threat (beneath the image on the left)
Is there any way around this?
Yes, there is a working hack and it is as simple as it can be.
See, I am no techie. I just stumbled upon this. I am sure as I write this piece, a lot of people have already found it and articles are being written about it.
- Right-click on the image you want to download (like the one above on the left)
- Choose ‘Copy Image Address‘ from the options
- Open a new tab or a window
- Paste (Ctrl+V) the address
- Press ‘Enter’.
And, boom, you will have your image the way you want it.
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The Internet is raging mad over the change. Not sure if Google will relent since the changes have business implications in the context of its agreement with Getty Images.
Actually, you can’t blame Google either. Over the years, photographers and publishers have heaped criticism over the search giant for making it easy for anyone to steal their pictures. The removal of the view image button is one of many changes being made in response.
Thank you for bringing up an important issue, making sure to honor copyrighted material. Being a technology dinosaur, I actually use a more direct approach. I simply goggle free images and usually choose something from wikipedia/wikimedia because of their commitment to making information available through the creative commons. I make sure to give the artists credit and embed the link for the original source in a caption.
Your approach is the best approach, Carol.
Thank you. It works for me, Amitesh, but it’s not my place to judge others’ choices. It’s a low-tech ethical way for me to “fill in the blanks” when I can’t take a photo or draw a suitable image.