People online are upset over a new decision from Google that makes it a little harder to download photos.
The search giant removed its popular “view image” feature Thursday as a part of a legal settlement. The feature previously allowed users to download and save photos without having to navigate through to the pictures’ web pages.
Today we're launching some changes on Google Images to help connect users and useful websites. This will include removing the View Image button. The Visit button remains, so users can see images in the context of the webpages they're on. pic.twitter.com/n76KUj4ioD
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 15, 2018
The “view image” option has long frustrated photographers and publishers who say their work is stolen when people download photos through Google’s search engine. The change comes as part of a settlement with Getty Images that aims to improve attribution for their contributors, Google said. The search engine also removed its “search by image” button, but users can still reverse image search by dragging images to the Google search bar.
But killing off the “view image” feature hasn’t sat well with web users, who have since been raising their concerns online.
Cool, so Google got rid of the view image button on Google search. LITERALLY THE ONLY THING I EVER USE . THANKS GOOGLE
— Ali H (@The_AliH) February 16, 2018
The frustrating part “view image” going away for some users was that the feature was a tool that many people used in their work.
Hey all you artists that use Google for reference images. Did you notice yet they removed the "view image" button? This is going to make research such a
— Matt Moylan 🇨🇦 (@LilFormers) February 16, 2018
pain... https://t.co/PYNR8A0Xiu via @Verge
Google removing the "view image" option is legitimately one of the workflow crippling things I've experienced in a while and is so user hostile that either 1) they'll be forced to pull it back or 2) an alternative will need to arrive
— Nikhil Krishnan (@nikillinit) February 16, 2018
And sure enough, some users have begun suggesting alternatives that keep “view image” alive, sort of.
— cyriak harris (@cyriakharris) February 16, 2018Google removed the "view image" button from image searches after pressure from Getty. I'd rather they removed stock photos from image searches instead.
Oh well. *right clicks view image* https://t.co/x50cUP9reV
Yes!
— foone🏳️⚧️ (@Foone) February 16, 2018
Firefox/Chrome extensions to add that "View Image" button back to google images:https://t.co/haUpQk4kk2 pic.twitter.com/rlimeSiNvq
So apparently in order to try and make their images harder to steal, Google has removed not only the ability to search by different sizes but also the "View Image" button from it's Image searches. Congrats Google, you found the one thing that would make me use Bing
— Aaron Bishop (@ProfessorThorgi) February 15, 2018
But knowing that Google has a history of abandoning beloved features, others have simply resigned themselves to brace for the search engine’s next big change.
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Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com
