Chrome Extension Brings 'View Image' Button Back (9to5google.com)

Google recently removed the convenient "view image" button from its search results as a result of a lawsuit with stock-photo agency Getty. Thankfully, one day later, a developer created an extension that brings it back. 9to5Google reports: It's unfortunate to see that button gone, but an easy to use Chrome extension brings it back. Simply install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, and then any time you view an image on Google Image Search, you'll be able to open that source image. You can see the functionality in action in the video below. The only difference we can see with this extension versus the original functionality is that instead of opening the image on the same page, it opens it in a new tab. The extension is free, and it will work with Chrome for Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, or anywhere else the full version of Chrome can be used. 9to5Google has a separate post with step-by-step instructions to get the Google Images "view image" button back.

Comments

Eric's theorem strikes again

[Indy1]

"For every technology, there is equal and opposite hacker technology"

Re:Eric's theorem strikes again

[Wootery]

Not really. There's nothing of any technical interest here, just a rather silly lawsuit by people who seem not to understand what it means to publish an image on the web.

They blame Google for people finding and stealing their images. They seem not to realise that if people can find their images online - which is presumably the point of publishing online - that means they'll be able to steal them.

Obfuscation/DRM of still-frame images will always be a losing battle. You can use technical measures to stop hotlinking (inspect HTTP referer header, or split image into several pieces and reassemble in HTML, or constantly shift URLs, etc), but there's no technical way to prevent stealing. Perhaps they could go as far as to use DRM technologies like EME to make it tougher, but it still wouldn't stop a determined thief. Insisting Google get rid of their View Image button is especially laughable.

Firefox too!

[ElectraFlarefire]

Also for Firefox too as can be quickly found out.
Makes it harder for google to block should they wish.

Re:Firefox too!

[mu22le]

Also for Firefox too as can be quickly found out.
Makes it harder for google to block should they wish.

You can automatically convert Chrome (and Opera) extensions to firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-...

They all use the Same API now anyway.

Re: No need for an extension

[innocent_white_lamb]

You're doing it wrong.

Left-click on the image so it opens into the larger image where "view image" button used to be.

Now right-click on the larger image and select "view image".

Re: No need for an extension

[AK Marc]

I'm surprised Google left the link to the full image in the HTML source, allowing this workaround to exist in the first place.

Then you are the dumbest fucking person on the planet. Google didn't want it. Google didn't care. Google took out the button because of a lawsuit. If the lawsuit people don't like it, they can sue The Internet. I'm not surprised they left it easy. Google doesn't want to lock it down. Why would you think Google would lock it down well?

Why not just block images from Getty?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't want them on Google. Fine, just remove them.

Re: No need for an extension

[Calydor]

Not always easy when the image is on an image-heavy page, so you end up having to scroll through 50 other images that all have to load in first.

Or maybe the page Google indexed is dynamic, so by now the image that was cached on page 2 is on page 41 and you'll never find it again.

Re: No need for an extension

[SandorZoo]

That doesn't always work. Sometimes the larger image is the (hotlinked) original image, but sometimes it's the same size as the thumbnail, and is either an image hosted in gstatic.com, or a base64 encoded data URL. It seems to me the larger an image is, the less likely it is to be hotlinked from Google's image search pages.

Re:Gee I wonder how you could find out

[muffen]

Is clicking two links to see for yourself really that hard?

Every click is an unwanted interruption, making the task at hand harder and harder and harder.... and harder... although after a while, it isn't hard anymore!

Bring back the old design

[houghi]

They should bring back the old design. I hate the fact that the images do not line up nicely and that I can not see immediately from what site they are. Yes, I know that I can scroll over it. That takes more time.

I also hate the continuous webpages in general. On Firefox there is Old Google Image Search

I have yet have to find a website where continues pages are an advantage.

A workaround is to add "&sout=1" to your search.