Somebody is linking to a thumb.

behr655

Here is the problem, if it is a problem. Someone is linking to one of my thumbnails (no, it's not me). It has had over 1400 hits this month. This is the medium size the thumb refers to:


I am somewhat flattered but I would like to know who is linking to it if it is possible. I also think it is odd that they are linking to the thumb and not the actual photo.:scratch
I added Starcounter to my site but knew going in that it probably would not help . (It is pretty cool seeing where some of the page views are coming from though.:D )
So, since I can't find out where it is linked to I was wondering if I were to replace the photo, would the link remain unbroken and the new thumb would still show to whomever is linking to it (devious thoughts running through my mind :wink ). Would the new photo still carry the original identifying tags? I would imagine that the new photo would have to have the same original file name as the original, correct?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Bear

PS. I don't want to turn linking off. I just want to know where it's coming from.

keving54

behr655 wrote:

Here is the problem, if it is a problem. Someone is linking to one of my thumbnails (no, it's not me). It has had over 1400 hits this month. This is the medium size the thumb refers to:


Hi there,

Nice photo! Almost looks like a painting.
While I'm not 100% sure, I believe if you delete the original thumbnail, the link will be broken. I posted a pic here one time, and made slight changes to it later and uploaded the same name to my smugmug account, deleted the old image, and the link was broken in my original posting - the picture was not displayed.
I'd be curious too, although it is flattering in a way.
Regards,
Kevin

rainforest1155

Uploading a picture a 2nd time will result in a new photo id and thus the old link will be broken if you delete the old picture. SM doesn't care about how you name your files.
But there is a function under photo tools ('replace photo'). This will actually overwrite the old picture with a new one and therefore keeping all links functional.

To the original question: No, you can't track direct links to any of your pictures (size doesn't matter, if it's a thumbnail, medium size or whatever) with SM or Statcounter. You can try a google search and google picture search for the picture using it's SM-filename (rightclick on picture --> properties). Don't know if this works, but it could be.

Hope this helps,
Sebastian

Andy

rainforest1155 wrote:

You can try a google search and google picture search for the picture using it's SM-filename (rightclick on picture --> properties). Don't know if this works, but it could be.

Hope this helps,
Sebastian

yields only one result, behr's image on his site.

rainforest1155

andy wrote:

yields only one result, behr's image on his site.

Andy, thanks for the try-out. I guess the other one could appear any time, because google is crawling constantely and may hit the page/forum in question.

Sebastian

behr655

rainforest1155 wrote:

But there is a function under photo tools ('replace photo'). This will actually overwrite the old picture with a new one and therefore keeping all links functional.


Hope this helps,
Sebastian

That is what I was thinking but need to know if it has to be an existing photo on smugmug or can it be a new up-load.

I did try googling the thumb but got no results.

This is really just a curiosity thing and it's really no big deal. Unless of course it is being used for evil purposes.

Thanks for the response.

Bear

rainforest1155

behr655 wrote:

That is what I was thinking but need to know if it has to be an existing photo on smugmug or can it be a new up-load.

Maybe I mixed it a littlebit up. Replace photo always refers to the picture over the photo tools box. Therefore it always replaces the existing photo and does not brake any existing links - all keywords and captions should stay the same, too.

When you want to create a completely new photo in your gallery you have to use one of the uploaders, as they always create a new and independent file in the SM database.

Hope I could clear things up this time. If not feel free to ask further questions.

Sebastian

GREAPER

Peplace the photo with a same sized one that says "I am a photo Thief"

behr655

GREAPER wrote:

Peplace the photo with a same sized one that says "I am a photo Thief"

That is right along the lines of what I was thinking.

asd

Wow..I noticed the same thing with the Small size of one of my photos. It's had 2051 hits this month. This is the medium..


I have no clue where the hits are coming from. It's kinda flattering, but I'm really curious where the hits are coming from.

behr655

Interesting. Both our shots have paths in them. Hmmmmm.....


Bear

flyingpylon

GREAPER wrote:

Peplace the photo with a same sized one that says "I am a photo Thief"

I wouldn't do that if they are hot linking a thumbnail. For all you know, they are displaying the thumbnail along with a hyperlink saying "go look at this great photo by this great photographer... and buy some prints".

If they were hotlinking a larger image, then I might be more concerned.

Heck, Google and a bunch of other search engines will take your images, create thumbnails that exist on their own server, and display them in search results. The only difference here is the bandwidth usage, and thumbnails don't take much. But do you consider Google to be a "photo thief", or do you hope people find your photos on Google and visit your site?