Google has brought in a new update to Google Images set to make licensing easier for pictures with copyright. The search engine will now begin to mark copyrighted images with a “licensable” badge. According to Google, this will be possible for publishers or creators who provide their licensing information.

Anyone that searches will then get a link to those licensing details. This will help users clarify whether the images are under Creative Commons and can be used for free with attribution or if they have a commercial license.

The close-up view of the picture will also show its copyright and creator. If a publisher provides Google with information how to purchase the image for use, then you’ll get a link to the stock photo site or any other source where you can pay for it, as well.

Start off your week with tech news recap and trending conversations in your inbox

Enter valid email-id

Subscribe

I prefer it on Telegram

Additonally, it will be able to filter image search filters by the type of licence attached. For instance, you could search just for images covered under a less strict Creative Commons license, or look specifically for commercial photos.

Image supplied

“We believe this is a step towards helping people better understand the nature of the content they’re looking at on Google Images and how they can use it responsibly,” the company says in a blog post.

The tech giant has also been working on making images richer and more informative recently. Google had began marking images with icons that show whether they link to pages with products for sale, to pages with recipes or to video content.