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Author Topic: How to prevent Google similar image search?  (Read 3586 times)

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vonkara

« on: January 08, 2014, 22:02 »
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I am wondering if there is a way to prevent the use of Google Image "drop image here" or similar image search. When an image have been bought several hundred times, it usually show up un-watermarked (unprotected) on many websites created by the buyers.

I have made my own test such as saving the image as progressive instead of regular, changing the framing or even adding a large black frame around the picture, but Google always seem to find the unprotected images across the internet.


« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2014, 22:37 »
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I don't know of any way, but even if I did, how will that help you if you license your images?

It's the buyers' sites that will control how the image is displayed on their web site and a thief could find those via the agency thumbnails - again, an image you don't control the format of.

I think we have to live with this search (and Google has hosed writers and musicians as well as photographers with making it so easy to find usable stuff). What I have been doing it trying - starting with my own web site which I do control - to ensure Google knows I'm the creator of an image. What I hope is that it will then be impossible for companies who pull the "we couldn't figure out who owned it" nonsense to claim that as I will be identified as the owner of the images in Google searches.

If you look at these search results you'll see some hits for agencies but one with my web site's image and me as the owner of that - with my avatar. I'm on the first page at least :)

It takes time for the results to propagate, but if my tagged results show up wherever the agency results do, I think I'll have made a step in the right direction.

The outright thief is something I can do nothing about (other than stop licensing my images) so I don't worry about it.

« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2014, 22:40 »
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This is a tangent, but I notice that the agencies are "lying" about the size of their thumbnails to get them higher up in searches. 123rf was making the stated size twice the actual, so then dreamstime did that too. Now I've seen some 123rf image thumbs that are stated to be 3 times the actual size - sort of a lying arms race to try and game Google search.


vonkara

« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2014, 23:34 »
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Yes, your images are all over the place, but at least they seem to be the agency watermarked ones. I guess there is nothing we can do about it Photoshop-wise...

marthamarks

« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2014, 00:42 »
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you'll see some hits for agencies but one with my web site's image and me as the owner of that - with my avatar. I'm on the first page at least :)

Jo Ann, this is very cool. Congrats for getting your avatar and your "image-ownership ID" up on Google like that. I'd like to do that too.

Somewhere or other, I think I remember a thread about how one could do that, but not sure if it was on MSG or the SYS forum. If you remember what that thread was titled (or even just where it was), could you point me in that direction? I'll be most appreciative if you can.

Thanks!
Martha

« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2014, 00:51 »
+3
The Symbiostock thread on this got wiped out in the forum change, but most of the information is in this blog post about it

http://www.digitalbristles.com/image-authorship-with-google/

The Google webmaster tools is now showing me all the structured data stuff as it re-crawls the files, so it takes time to propagate fully, but the first of the images showed up within a few days

« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2014, 01:46 »
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Great blog post Jo Ann! Thanks for the info.

marthamarks

« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2014, 02:07 »
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« Reply #8 on: January 16, 2014, 01:20 »
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And here's a follow up blog post on getting the agencies connected to authorship and Google+ - if you have already set things up for your Symbiostock site (or already have a Google+ page set up) it's a small step to add to the agencies that support it, especially to dreamstime

http://www.digitalbristles.com/getting-our-names-with-our-images-in-the-search-wilderness/


 

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