# Why so many 404 errors on Google Images? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647 "2007-01-12T02:20:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/1 "2007-01-12T02:20:16Z")
Many a time I’ve done a search for a picture (specific or general), clicked on the thumbnail, only to be told b the originating site that picture no longer exists there. So why does Google still think it does and where did the thumbnail come from if the picture is gone? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/2 "2007-01-12T02:48:09Z")
Google isn’t searching the web when you run a search. It’s searching it’s database of things that were out on the web when its spiders were looking for stuff. It’s not an up-to-date list of what’s available. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/3 "2007-01-12T06:09:17Z")
As **Telemark** said, Google searches just search their own system which has a bunch of records of stuff that _was_ found. The thumbnail is something that Google’s spiders made when they found the picture and stored in the Google system. The reason why there are more 404 errors on images than on webpages is probably an issue of either: 1. Google doesn’t put as much resources into tracking images so they’re less up-to-date. Or simply, downloading, thumbnailing, and cataloguing them takes more computing power than a text-page. 2. Pictures are more volatile than webpages. To create a webpage, you need to maintain your own website and create content for it. Most images on the internet though, may be stuff that people uploaded to things like Photobucket, Flickr, etc. so it’s easier for people to be constantly adding, deleting, and moving the pictures. Or potentially a mixture of the two. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/4 "2007-01-12T06:21:25Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat] . The reason why there are more 404 errors on images than on webpages is probably an issue of either: 1. Google doesn’t put as much resources into tracking images so they’re less up-to-date. Or simply, downloading, thumbnailing, and cataloguing them takes more computing power than a text-page. [/QUOTE] Since it looks like the OP has been answered, may I ask a potential hijacking question? Is that “downloading, thumbnailing, and cataloguing” a form of copyright infringement? ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/5 "2007-01-12T07:45:45Z")
That still looks like a grey area. Google was in some [tussles about it](http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6102153.html) in the middle of last year. > [@](#): > > For its part, Google says it values copyright and points out that it allows copyright holders to opt out of having their content included in the company’s search products. Copyright holders, however, say it’s impractical for millions of people to opt out of hundreds of search engines. Still, Google says its expectations are reasonable. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/6 "2007-01-12T08:37:44Z")
Thanks for the link. Interesting reading there, and also via some of the links there. I haven’t read Google’s brief yet, but maybe I can this weekend… ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/7 "2007-01-12T09:48:21Z")
I don’t know what the legal status is (beyond reading **Ice Wolf** ’s thing), but I suspect that it would be hard for anyone to successfully sue Google over it. 1. The images are publicly available for free. 2. Google does not store the image in it’s complete form. Their thumbnail could easily be argued as being no different from storing a summary of a novel. 3. The same holds for the text content on the webpage that Google also tracks and stores. 4. Without someone providing an image and text search engine, no one would be able to find the page to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/8 "2007-01-12T09:57:03Z")
The google search robots honor [robots exclusion](http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html) standards ([wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt) . Thus a provider of web content can easily prevent indexing of that content by google and other standard-compliant search engines. This [robots.txt file](http://www.google.com/robots.txt) is used by google itself ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-so-many-404-errors-on-google-images/387647/9 "2007-01-12T16:00:45Z")
What I usually come across is that if the thumbnail appears to be that of a copy of a copyrighted picture that the actual picture on the web site is a bit more likely not to be there. I assume this is due to the actual copyright owner (possibly using Google image search itself) sending a notice to the infringing site telling them to take it down. People are more likely to steal images than text so not so much a problem for the text content of web pages themselves.