Google removes "View image" button: Privacy or Photographers pressure?

Recently, the giant search engine, Google came up with a change to remove “view image” button, available for its users, which allows them to access high definition images with just a single click. Google has invited anger by removing this option from its image search results. The fact behind this so called “awful” decision made by Google is the complaint filed by a photo agency called “Getty Images”. They filed an anti-competition lawsuit against Google in the European Commission. It argued that clicking the “view image” gives user a direct and separate pathway to download large & high resolution images without paying for permission.

The other intention seems to drag user to the concerned sites, where the images are born. Certainly a person who visit a site to download an image, he/she may also click some other links available and this would add to the net resulting traffic, which is the main source of revenue for any site owner.

In a statement, Google said “the change strikes a balance between the need of users and copyright holders”.

Getty images said it was pleased its concerns had been recognized.

The only group will suffer are the “general people” or more specifically the students, who used this service to cater their daily need, like for presentation for academics.

Fortunately, there is one way around to open an image separately without visiting its site. Google is up with an option to download the same high definition image as we used to do earlier. But this time it’s not available with just a one click, but now they are encouraged to right click the image and click ‘open image in new tab’.

It’s smartly done, because audience prefers to click options which are readily available on their computer screen. Earlier it used to be “view image” but now they are only left with “Visit site”.