Interesting post at http://blog.photoshelter.com/2013/05/new-google-images-interface-causes-78-drop-in-referral-traffic-to-your-site/
SEO consulting firm Define Media Group analyzed 87 domains worldwide from a variety of networks and business verticals, and found an average 63% decrease in referral traffic from Google Images after the January update. Those defined as “photo sites” are down 74%. Fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment sites are down 78%.
I must say, from a user standpoint, the new quick look method is quite useful. I think sites just need to change the way that they embed images, because there are some sites where you cannot see a full-res image by clicking "view original image", you must go to the webpage in order to see or obtain the image. If everyone did this, the quick look should still work, but anyone wanting a larger image would give your site traffic. What Google has done makes practical sense. I'm sure by not loading up individual webpages in the background, their load times are faster.
Thing Google did makes sense to them, but does not make sense to owners of sites and photos, hence it is wrong thing.
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