Do hotlinked images count as links?

[MarkWolk]

I was studying the inbound links to one of my sites using Yahoo Explorer. It amazed me to find that several sites were hotlinking images from my site, and that these hotlinks were counted as inbound links by Yahoo.

The images are not a clickable link; they are just sourced from my site's url.

On most of my sites, I prevent hotlinking to save bandwidth. But should I rather encourage it, if it helps with the overall popularity of my site?

[Receptional Andy]

Do hotlinked images count as links?

Yes, but as links to the image itself, not the a page, so could help with image search. IIRC, Site Explorer shows many types of links that won't give any SEO benefit, including those with nofollow.

[MarkWolk]

Yes, but as links to the image itself, not the a page

Makes sense; thanks.