Google Image Search Now Indexing Blogger

By Jonathan Bailey • Dec 9th, 2007 • Category: Articles, News

Though it doesn’t make much sense, Google Image Search had not been indexing images on its Google’s own Blogspot service until earlier this month.

Though this is good news in that it will improve the effectiveness of image search techniques, such as the digital fingerprint method I described on the Blog Herald, it could also mean an increase in image spam blogging on the Blogspot service.

Simply put, since image searches have increased in popularity but remain less competitive than text ones, some spammers have seized upon it as a way to improve the effectiveness of existing spam operations by adding images to the text in hopes that they get picked up.

However, Blogspot spam has remained relatively void of such images, largely because it wasn’t being indexed. However, that will likely start to change now.

Though this is great news overall, every silver lining has a cloud. Photographers should use this tool to their advantage but also be more on guard because of it.

Short URL to this Post: http://copybyte.com/z/bw

Jonathan Bailey is The Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today, which he founded in 2005 as a way to help Webmasters going through content theft problems get accurate information and stay up to date on the rapidly-changing field. He is also a consultant to Webmasters and companies to help them devise practical content protection strategies and develop good copyright policies.
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  • JB
    RS: I don't know if it is so much a matter of the cop being the criminal as it is the cop being the target. Though I'm no fan of Google, by all accounts, Google indexing Blogspot images is a good thing and long overdue. It just also opens up a new door for spammers and I doubt there is much that Google could have done under these conditions.

    An analogy would be if a bank decided to accept wire transfers from a strange country. On one hand, legitimate users in that country could now send and receive money. On the other, scammers could use the bank to do illegal things.

    So it's a combination of being aware that you can now send money to that country and being cautious of any requests from there. The same as always.

    It remains to be seen how much this changes the game.
  • So, the cop is the criminal! What is the point of providing such a service if you can not protect IP for your own selfish motives. Not a great way to build a reputation.

    Do I get the sense that we are all helpless to do anything about this?
  • JB
    Recliners: That's the nature of search engines. They are the tools we use to detect content theft and the target of spam operations. They're double-edged swords.

    Used Vans Girl: Unlikely. Blogger has attempted to in the past but Google's reliability in the spam blog fight is dubious at best. Since they profit from the spam blogs on their own service, since they usually run their Adsense program, their motivation and response has been less than awe-inspiring.
  • Surely if this becomes a problem then the makers of the blogs will just introduce a filter to cut down on the spam problem.
  • Going by what you say, it sounds as though this may be a mixed blessing then.
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