Google Plus Halts Image Saving from Right-Click on Google Plus Posts

Google Plus recently added some features but also made some other significant changes to the Google Plus social network. Among one of the changes that they made does not appear to be mentioned by anyone yet–the fact that users can no longer save images that have been uploaded by other users. This a rather significant change, and will have an effect on a lot of the images that are shared on Google+.

Let’s me explain, using a specific example. Let’s say, for example, that you’re browsing Google+ What’s Hot page, and see a photo or image that someone shared. Just like the image that I’ve added below:

You really like the image, and want to share it with your friends. Okay, that’s great. You have a few options:

– you can click on the +1 button to +1 it, and, because of the way Google+ works, stuff you +1 will show up on your friends’ feed/timeline. You don’t have to actually share it with them.
– you can click on the “share” button and share it with your friends.

Before this recent Google+ change, you had a third option: click on the image, and the image would be displayed on another page. Then, you could right-click on the image and “save image as…” and save it to your hard drive. Then, you could upload the image to your own feed/timeline or simply share it on another social network.

After this recent update on Google+, you can no longer save images. You can no longer “right-click” to save the image.

Now, your only option is to use some sort of screen capture program or browser add-on to grab the image and save it.

This is actually good news and a good change for Google+. As a result of this minor change:

– We will see a lot less ‘image saving’, thus if your original photo or image is posted, it’s less likely to be copied and used elsewhere.
– We will see more image sharing, and less of the same image shared over and over again.

I have seen many cases where the same exact image or animated GIF file is on the “what’s hot” page on Google+ all at the same time, shared by separate people. With this new change, it will be virtually impossible for this to happen in the future, unless, for example, it’s attached to a news story or contains a link out to another site.

The only ‘bad news’ part of this is that it appears that Google has disabled the right-click to save option on the actual post page (what happens when you click on an image to see the Google+ post) and not on the actual Google+ feed/timeline.

So, if you were to click on the photo in a post, you will get to a page like this, the actual post page:

If you are on that page, you cannot “right click” to save the image. But, you can still save the image directly from your feed/timeline.

Update:
It appears that although Google+ has disabled the right-click save as… feature, they’ve actually sort of “moved” this ability to save the photo. I’m not sure of the actual intentions of this (perhaps they want to know which photos are downloaded?), but you can actually download the image. Here is how to do that:

1. Click on the photo from the timeline/feed.
2. You will see another actual post page, with the comments (if any) on the right side as shown in the screen capture below:

3. Click on the “more” menu and then click “download”.

I suspect that Google has done this because they want to take more control over the photos that are downloaded. And, they want to know which photos are downloaded.

Don’t forget to add me on Google+.

Read What I’ve Written About Google+
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Why You Should Use Google+
How to Remove Circle Counts on Google+
How to Promote Your Personal Brand on Google+
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