I don't think there is any Google update related to Alt Tag. Alt tag is still working. Its very helpful to describe any image also helpful for keyword ranking.
Of course... This is maybe one of the best ways to boost your images ranking position (of course with many other factors!)
Yes, ALT tag is still working like a charm.. I am using it since many years specially in wordpress and it is working fine for me.. Even while doing SBM i do make sure to add the ALT tag as my keyword..
Alt tags work very well if you have good images. One of my sites gets a lot of traffic from image searches
You want to use alt attributes because it's not that hard to do and it still maters when it comes to high quality search engine optimization.
To those who suggested it's not bad and those thinking similar, it can be bad. It can play a role in the algorithm Google uses when determining over optimization penalties of a page if it sees those alt tags stuffed with keywords. So when filling out the alt tag, which really isn't a "tag", but an attribution, do it properly and you will be fine. Aurelius
Alt tag cloud are needed with the html/xhtml standards. It can be merely a bad strategy to never possibly be compliant.
yes alt tag still usefull because if we put it in our site with image it helps search engine to crawl on image,which also generate traffics.
Most definitely still a good idea - a picture may be worth a thousand words but search engines won't see any of them unless you tell them what they are!
Yes, alt tag is an important factor in website optimization. It is basically an alternate text to an image so that spider can read your image section...
Alt Tags are still Effective if you have Images on your site. Search Engine can't crawl images though alt tags tells SE that there is an "IMAGE" on this page
Actually, ALT tag should tell WHAT IS on the image. Google already knows that there's an image, but what's on it is different story altogether.