Missing Google Images' "View Image" button? Use Startpage Image Search instead

So, Google pulled the "view image" button on the company's Google Images search engine recently leaving many users puzzled.

Google removed the button after the company entered an agreement with Getty Images. Back then it was not clear if the agreement would make Google remove the "view image" button from all images or only those by Getty Images.

Today we know that the change affects all images regardless of who owns the copyright. The view image button loaded the full size image directly on Google Images when users activated it.

With that option gone, users of Google Images have no other option on the site but to click on the visit button. This opens the web page the image is posted on and may require that users click on the image again to view a larger copy of it. Whether that is required or not depends largely on how the image is embedded on the site.

The removal of the view image button on Google Images removes a popular feature from the site. For some users, it may have been the only reason to visit Google Images, for instance, to download wallpaper images directly from the site.

Webmasters may benefit from the change on the other hand as many users of Google Images may visit the sites the images are published on to view or download them.

The alternative

We talked about Google Images alternatives before; there are plenty, but the one that I really like is maintained by the search engine Startpage.

Just visit the Startpage main website and enter a search term. You do need to switch to images on the results page to get a thumbnail view of images similar to the one that is provided by Google Images.

A click on an image displays options, and one of the options is view image. This, as you may have guessed already, opens the image directly. One of the added benefits of using Startpage Search for that is that the images are opened anonymously through a proxy so that your information does not leak to the site hosting it.

It is still a nice gesture to visit the site in question but if you just want to view images in full resolution without leaving the search engine, Startpage does offer that as well. (via gHacks)

Now You: Which search engine do you use for image searching?