Stop people from finding your supplier via google image search

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Not sure if I have explained this well.

All I want to know is what can i do to my pictures to stop people from searching for my suppliers by taking my picture and entering it into Google Search Images.

I will be selling my items on various websites that I do not own. So would like to upload a pic that won't bring up any search results if they used it in Google images.

Hope someone understands what I'm trying to say. Thanks in Advance.
#finding #google #image #people #search #stop #supplier
  • Don't use image <alt> tags, basically.
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  • Profile picture of the author tollybear
    i sell on facebook on my personal page, and noticed ppl can use my pics and search on google, so how can i avoid this. I don't use any tags etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
    Originally Posted by tollybear View Post

    Not sure if I have explained this well.

    All I want to know is what can i do to my pictures to stop people from searching for my suppliers by taking my picture and entering it into Google Search Images.

    I will be selling my items on various websites that I do not own. So would like to upload a pic that won't bring up any search results if they used it in Google images.

    Hope someone understands what I'm trying to say. Thanks in Advance.
    I am not sure if you can 100% stop this from happening. If I was worried here are some of the routes I would choose.

    1. change the stock photo name - not sure if this will actually stop it from happening.
    2. upload all your images to imgur and then redownload. I believe imgur strips out all the meta data google uses to search your picture.
    3.Take my own photographs - Not sure if the supplier will allow this but if they do your pictures will be unique and not have the meta data.
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    • Profile picture of the author tollybear
      Originally Posted by OnlineStoreHelp View Post

      I am not sure if you can 100% stop this from happening. If I was worried here are some of the routes I would choose.

      1. change the stock photo name - not sure if this will actually stop it from happening.
      2. upload all your images to imgur and then redownload. I believe imgur strips out all the meta data google uses to search your picture.
      3.Take my own photographs - Not sure if the supplier will allow this but if they do your pictures will be unique and not have the meta data.
      thanks for you input, tried 1 and 2 with no luck, you're on the right track tho Number 3 is my last resort, because these are dresses they look much better on the models rather then on a mannequin or lying flat
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      • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
        Originally Posted by tollybear View Post

        thanks for you input, tried 1 and 2 with no luck, you're on the right track tho Number 3 is my last resort, because these are dresses they look much better on the models rather then on a mannequin or lying flat
        Alas, I was hoping number 2 would work but I did do a quick search and found this lifehacker article.

        JPEG & PNG Stripper Removes the Metadata from Your Images

        @ronrule when you take photos with a digital camera it embeds meta data that can tell you all kinds of information about the photo. Google uses that data to pull together similar photographs and how people can do an image search.

        Tollybear, when you find a solution, please share with us as it would be useful information for us all. On another note you can find mannequins pretty cheap on eBay. Around 40 bucks with shipping. The hard part is lighting but depending where you live, just take it outside during the day and get natural sun light and you wont need any lighting equipment.
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        • Profile picture of the author tollybear
          Originally Posted by OnlineStoreHelp View Post

          Alas, I was hoping number 2 would work but I did do a quick search and found this lifehacker article.

          JPEG & PNG Stripper Removes the Metadata from Your Images

          @ronrule when you take photos with a digital camera it embeds meta data that can tell you all kinds of information about the photo. Google uses that data to pull together similar photographs and how people can do an image search.

          Tollybear, when you find a solution, please share with us as it would be useful information for us all. On another note you can find mannequins pretty cheap on eBay. Around 40 bucks with shipping. The hard part is lighting but depending where you live, just take it outside during the day and get natural sun light and you wont need any lighting equipment.
          great idea at the stripper software, i excitedly tried a couple but still no go, my image is showing the suppliers lol. Still tryna find a solution and YES definitely will bring back the answers... It's a great tool if you want to keep your supplier private, this line of clothing isn't even on EBAY or AMAZON hence why i'm trying to protect the photo's before uploading, only the supplier is selling these.
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        • Profile picture of the author ronrule
          Originally Posted by OnlineStoreHelp View Post

          @ronrule when you take photos with a digital camera it embeds meta data that can tell you all kinds of information about the photo. Google uses that data to pull together similar photographs and how people can do an image search
          Meta data won't magically figure out what the product is though... not unless someone specifically embedded it. I suspect Google uses more than just the image file name and alt tags, if it's a known shopping cart they can include the page title and other variables to figure out what the image is.
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          • Profile picture of the author dburk
            Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

            Meta data won't magically figure out what the product is though... not unless someone specifically embedded it. I suspect Google uses more than just the image file name and alt tags, if it's a known shopping cart they can include the page title and other variables to figure out what the image is.
            Hi Ron,

            I believe what tollybear is referring to is the Search by Image feature of Google images.

            "Search by image allows you to do a reverse image search and discover all sorts of content that's related to a specific image. For example, search using a picture of your favorite band and see search results that might include similar images, webpages about the band, and even sites that include the same picture."

            @tollybear,

            They only way to prevent people from finding your supplier via reverse image search is to not use any of the same images that your supplier uses. Or, ask your supplier to take steps to prevent their images from being indexed by using robots.txt.

            There are also some tricks that you can employ to make it a little more difficult to snag you images for a reverse image search, by using typical hot-link prevention methods, but they are certainly not going to thwart the technically astute users. All you are doing is making it a little less convenient and hoping they will be too lazy to take the extra effort to snag you image for the reverse image search.

            You might also try editing your images, by combining techniques like flip, rotate, crop and color adjustments. You may alter the image sufficiently to obscure it from being detected in a reverse image search.
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  • Profile picture of the author OliverTrent
    Theres software out there that will add a few filters over the image, not noticable to the human eye but it throws off the Google image search, tineye etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author tollybear
    hey thanks guys will try some of these cos i need to upload my stock.
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  • Profile picture of the author tollybear
    Oliver Trent can you give me the names of those softwares, just tried imgur and no go, can still search using pic. Because these are clothing looks way better on the companies model rather then me taking my own pics lol, altho that might have to be it if i can't find an alternative.
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    Originally Posted by tollybear View Post

    Not sure if I have explained this well.

    All I want to know is what can i do to my pictures to stop people from searching for my suppliers by taking my picture and entering it into Google Search Images.

    I will be selling my items on various websites that I do not own. So would like to upload a pic that won't bring up any search results if they used it in Google images.

    Hope someone understands what I'm trying to say. Thanks in Advance.
    I'm a little confused as to exactly what you're asking ... first, are you taking your own photos, or using the ones provided by your suppliers? And second, what makes you think they're using an image search to find your suppliers instead of just typing the product names into Google?
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  • Profile picture of the author tollybear
    They are dresses with no brand name, so i know they wouldn't be typing in product names etc. Alot of ppl try find suppliers by using google images, its an old trick.
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  • Profile picture of the author tollybear
    I'm not taking my own photo's this will be last resort. When selling womens dresses they look nicer on a model rather then lying on the floor or on a manniquin etc.

    All i want to know if i can can tweak the suppliers pics so competitors can't find who I use, cos at the moment the pics I have once uploaded to google images, BANG there goes my supplier, understand now what im trying to achieve, if its possible of course.
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    • Profile picture of the author ronrule
      Originally Posted by tollybear View Post

      I'm not taking my own photo's this will be last resort. When selling womens dresses they look nicer on a model rather then lying on the floor or on a manniquin etc.

      All i want to know if i can can tweak the suppliers pics so competitors can't find who I use, cos at the moment the pics I have once uploaded to google images, BANG there goes my supplier, understand now what im trying to achieve, if its possible of course.
      Do your suppliers have their name stamped on the pictures? I'm still not sure what you're saying ... an image isn't inherently "linked" to a supplier unless their name is visible on it, or the image file name is their SKU. But even if you changed those things, there are probably other people out there who use the images from that same supplier so people will still be able to find it.
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      • Profile picture of the author tollybear
        Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

        Do your suppliers have their name stamped on the pictures? I'm still not sure what you're saying ... an image isn't inherently "linked" to a supplier unless their name is visible on it, or the image file name is their SKU. But even if you changed those things, there are probably other people out there who use the images from that same supplier so people will still be able to find it.
        No names stamped on photo's, its just a pic of a model showing the dress off. No watermarks nothing, but when you upload the pic to google images, up pops the supplier etc. OnlineShop above is on the right track, but those methods haven't worked.
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  • Profile picture of the author tollybear
    Here's an example of a seller. Now when i copy their image url it takes me to a bunch of online sellers that sell the same dress which allows me to find a supplier for that same dress. here is the image url http://images.trademe.co.nz/photoser.../252286595.jpg throw that in google images and there you will find many sellers.

    Here is a pic that doesn't show any sellers at all, this sellers pics are all like this so we can't find suppliers etc, so i guess you can do something to your pics to stop the google image searching it. http://images.trademe.co.nz/photoser.../246960165.jpg
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  • Profile picture of the author malia
    If it's not a lot of photos, and they are regular web resolution, i would just use a screen capture tool (or for me the native mac hotkeys) and screen capture all the photos and save them as jpgs. That will not have any meta data from the original photo.
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    • Profile picture of the author amflores
      Try a horizontal image flip in photoshop. Hopefully that will do the trick
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  • Profile picture of the author chg
    If people are using the Search by Image feature of Google, then it is going to be a bit tricky. This may help:

    -Resize the photo to different dimensions. Crop some if necessary.
    -Strip all meta data.
    -Watermark the photos (if supplier allows for it)
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    • Profile picture of the author chrisraynes
      Tollybear,

      Another method you can try for single pics is to use IRFANVIEW to copy the image to a new file. Make the new file size a few pixels smaller or larger than the original. (That way Goog won't find it by image size.)

      You view the original in IRFANView, highlight the image (making the highlighted area a little smaller by leaving off a few pixels on the side or bottom).

      Then create a NEW image from the file menu and hit ctrl+v. You'll have to name the picture yourself. I would put your own digits in front of the vendor's ID, then put a dash in before the last two digits. That way you can see the original number, but it will look unique to Goog.

      If you have a lot of pics to convert, use Faststone Photo Resizer. It will automatically resize the pics, put a border on them if you want, put a filename or other text on them, put a watermark on them, and will rename the files sequentially or just add digits to the file name.

      You can do whole directories at a time with Faststone Resizer.

      Both programs are free to use, donations suggested.

      Hope that helps.

      Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author buysellbrowse
    Your sample image is a composite of 3 pictures. Cut the image into 3 pieces, resize a bit and display 3 images one next to each other on your site. You can do that with gimp, then export to a different format (if you have an original .jpg image, export to .gif or .png). If you want .jpg, you can also adjust the quality a tad lower, resulting in a smaller image file size.
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  • Profile picture of the author Aussie_Al
    Am I missing something here - both the examples you use have sku#s on them when i typed those into google this is what i found:
    Trade Me - Listings from daisy284
    Trade Me - Listings from flankasales0607
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  • Profile picture of the author Colours
    hi,

    I registered especially to answer your question.

    First of all, google (or tineye) proceeds by algorithm for image recognition along with metadata, name and so on but they will develop their algorithm more and more. So, metadata and name won't be important in future.

    It means the only possibility is to modify picture but it will become less and less efficient even with important modifications (because algorithm will recognize parts of picture along with global picture).
    Chrisraynes is right but I think irfanview can do modifications in batch. Otherwise, one by one, it really takes to much time.
    I think the best would be a kind of image encryption on high resolution pictures. Otherwise, maybe vector pictures would do the job but it's really easy to produce a matricial picture from a vectorial picture.

    Personally, I simply chose to stop to use pictures. Instead, I use the old method : physical catalog sent to my customers. But I'm not really satisfied. Probably retailers and importers as us will have big problems in near future. It's only a matter of time because google never stop to improve their algorithms.
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  • Profile picture of the author rookiekan
    Yes,it's difficult to stop google from search your image,even people can't copy your image,they can snapshot it,then google it.the best method is to modify the image very much so that google can't recognize it,but google is clever enough and it's improving,so nothing is a better way.
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  • Profile picture of the author Corbow6
    Went ahead and register to help you out on this. After a few different attempts to hide from reverse image search I've successfully fooled both Google and TinEye through an easy combo. First off, I use a program that has become a starred freeware SmillaEnlarger. It takes the painstaking work of boosting an images acceptable resolution size, and does a great job of it. You can either grow or shrink images to complete stage one, but I was using small images to begin with so a healthy dose of Gaussian blur seems to assist in hiding. The second method was to simply flip the image horizontally in photoshop. On a select few I also adjusting the color ratios, contrast, and exposure, but that was rare.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Most comments in this thread are dreaming.

    Google will find duplicate images without alt-text, meta data, image editing, image crop, image flip, or just about anything else you can dream up.

    You can even combine multiple images & Google will pick out each individual image & find the duplicate image sources on the web.
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