On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 11:40 PM, Nathan nawrich@gmail.com wrote:
Presumably Google performs a search of image descriptions and surrounding texts, and gives results showing where other sites host the images. I don't think that Google hosts these images itself - but it would be interesting to see if the IWF would take the enormously public step of blocking access to Google in order to block access to a particular file.
Google takes the image and produces a thumbnail of it, which is what shows in their searches. They do host that. They've even been sued for it. For instance, this is their thumbnail version of the now infamous album cover from our site (regular warning apply, if you don't want to see the image, don't click the link):
http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:Amv-tAsRLR7b0M:http://upload.wikimedia.o...
Google definitely hosts these images.
--Oskar