SVG "images"

[justpassing]

Hi

Reading at another topic, I was wondering :

- Does Google Image Bot index SVG files? (in other words, do SVG files can show up in the Google Images Search)

- Does the use of SVG "images" can help prevent image scrapers? I was thinking that "may be", image scrapers only handle bitmap images (PNG, GIF, JPEG). There are ways to convert an SVG file into a bitmap image, but they are tricky, and often the resulting image is buggy, so may be image scrapers are not bothering with this format. Or may be they simply scrap anything using an <img tag, and server the raw file.

Regards,

[NickMNS]

It all depends on how one includes the SVG into the HTML document. If one uses:

• <img>: when referencing the SVG's file with this tag it will be indexed just like any other image. Hot-linkers other than Google can and likely will hot-link your images.
  
• <svg>: when embedding the SVG directly into the HTML the image will not be indexed in Google image search and cannot be hot-linked
  
• <object>: when referencing the SVG's file with this tag Google does not include the image in Google image search. Technically (I believe) hot-linkers should be able to hot-link the files but in my experience they do not.
  

[justpassing]

Thanks for your answer.

Do you know if Google is taking in consideration the text which is embed into a SVG file, for ranking the "image"?

Hot-linkers and scrapers are two different things. I am fine with hot-linkers, I can more or less control what is showing (or not) at other sites, and now that Google has refined its Image search algorithm to take in consideration authority of sites, I am confident that hot -linkers will no longer outrank the sites from where images are originally coming from.

I am more concerned by scrapers , those who download images, and serve their own copies. Do you have any experience on the subject? Do these image scrapers are only downloading bitmap files?