Google has been introducing new search features regularly, however, this time around, it’s time to bid adieu to one of Google’s popular search feature, the View Image button. Yes, Google is removing the “view image” button which allowed users to open the picture without having to visit the website. This feature came in handy when you want to search for pictures without having to visit every website. In other words, consumers were able to open a particular image hosted on a website without opening the website itself.
While this feature may have been handy for most of us, it has also been an easy way for folks to steal and distribute copyrighted material. Google has been taking flak from photographers and users who felt that the View Image allowed users to steal their pictures. This has forced Google to do away with the View Image button and henceforth it is going to be harder for users to open favorite images directly from the search page.
Google has replaced the “View Image” button with a “Visit” button. Clicking on the latter will take you to the website. That being said, people will still be able to steal the copyrighted images by visiting the website. However, the removal of View Image button not only makes it slightly harder for people to steal images but it also instills a sense of fear, especially since the user knows that he is stealing images from a particular website. On the contrary, publishers and content creators will get more traffic as users now have to open their websites to view the images. With this, the overall exposure of the website is likely to increase as well.
Apart from the View Image, Google has also made some changes when it comes to “search by image” button. Yes, the popular way to reverse search images is not easily accessible. Now you can no more simply drag the image into a search bar and reverse search for it. Instead, users first need to head over to the image results and then click on the camera icon to reverse search for the image. In a nutshell, Google has repositioned its Image search features in order to address the publishers’ piracy concerns.