If I have an image indexed in google images and I change it, will it be dropped from google images? For instance, I have an image that ranks very high and I want to change the image to something that looks the same but is different, and it will be a different file size (same dimensions, just different overall size)...will google notice and drop my image all together? Thanks!
What do you think? It's basically a totally new image for Google, think about it, if google won't rank it, what if you change it into some dirty picture? My suggestion is, small change is ok, no huge one.
google know the content of the image. Like a page got update, an image also can be update, and Google will know it
Let's say that I am selling vacuum cleaners and I have a photo of a vacuum cleaner that is #1 in google images and bringing lots of traffic. Now I have a new, better photo of same vacuum. I want to replace the image but leave the file name the same. It's the same item but a completely different image. when I save it, the file size is different, but file name is the same. I'm afraid to update it because I think the image will lose the #1 rank in google images, but I want to update it because the new image is so much better!
You can try it and tell us what happened. But if I were you, I would rather add another image and name it properly..
Google uses image pattern recognition (artificial intelligence algorithms) but if the image is quite similar it may not affect the outcome, except for the image creation date that will change. Like WishBone suggests, you could do it on one of your images as a test and let us all know. It would be interesting to see the results.