Wow. I had no idea! I would love to know the answer, too.

I had a public account and gave the "album" a name. When I googled the name of the album, it popped up. I asked "Google" how I could get rid of the "link" and they said to make my album private and when they next "web crawled" it wouldn't pick it up. Took about three weeks to get it off the internet. Hope this helps you.

I'll try that now, upa. Since I posted this question another 760 people have "hit" something in my album. Funny thing is that I cannot imagine what they'd be looking at; the photos are of no possible interest to anyone else!

But my album is "private," and it still shows that I have 16,280 hits. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

I just checked by googling the words and the only places that came up are posts on this forum! I tried to paste the direct link to a specific photo into the google search bar, and it came up empty.

Do that many people look on this site?

Overnight another 600 people looked at something in my photobucket account. The only places I have used a link is here on GardenWeb.... I am astonished that so many people are on this site.

Organic, when you post photos by using the code copied from photobucket, my understanding is that you don't actually copy the photo itself but rather the link and that's what makes the photo appear when someone clicks on the thread. Each time someone clicks on a thread and your photo is "fetched" from photobucket via that link, it counts as a hit.

At least, that is what I was able to glean from further reading last night in various user forums. Even if your site is private, if you post the link people can access that picture in a thread only. If your site is public, people can somehow follow the link or link back and see your other photos. I am still not sure how that works, and would love to find out if anyone knows.

All I know about this business is when I click on a GWer's photo, it sometimes takes me to their album.

A few times, when I happen to love their room, I will peek at a few more rooms in their album. I emailed a member when I felt a little guily about it and explained what I had done and how much I admired their style. They were very gracious about it.

Not being very computer literate myself and after seeing that my album doesn't show up on photo-bucket, I'm still not sure when a member has theirs set on public intentionally and welcomes visitors or not.

Interesting question.

I will try to explain how someone can see/find your unlocked (not private) pictures.

I searched GW for kswl. Found this thread (Finding the right pale yellow) you had posted pictures on:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/decor/msg0423310715877.html

I right clicked on your photo and selected "open in new window"

Your picture opened in a window with the photobucket URL address on the top:

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x186/kswl/Christmas/library.jpg

Cut that down to:

http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x186/kswl/

and you can see what all is in that album.

Hope that is simple enough. :D

kswl,

Thank you so much for asking this question! I had been wondering about it myself.
I thought I would try to find a re-set button to take the 'views' down to zero and then see what happens, thinking my view number must be a fluke. Couldn't find any reset button.

Organic smallHome,
I have several of my albums set to private and also have eleventy-two hundred views.
I certainly don't go looking at my own pics that often. LOL

allison0704,

Thank you for a very clear to me explanation!

Hoping someone knows the answer to Another Question re; PhotoBucket:

I put pictures in my albums in order (example: Before pic of cheapy wall clock/After pic of wall clock painted).
Once they've been downloaded into the album they are all mixed up, no Before/Afters next to each other.
Is there a way to move the pictures in the same album so that they are in order?

I thought Photobucket put them in the order you uploaded them in - newest is first. Before they made changes (haven't tried it since) you could "move" the photo in one album to the same album and it would then be first. A pain in the arse to do though.

Shutterfly is free and has the feature of moving them around in an album or copying to another album. Very easy. I have both Shutterfly and Photobucket accounts. Shutterfly albums are easier to share, imo.

Thanks for that explanation, Allison! I guess GW is a much busier place than it appears; there must be thousands of people who look but do not post.

I'm glad I am not the only one who has had trouble understanding how this works. :)

I did exactly what you described, Allison, and the process took me directly to my album.... where there are now 19,000 "hits" for July. Now I feel as though I need to be on my best behaviour since so many people are watching, lol.

Here's another little bit of info...which may account for how many hits you are getting...it's not exactly a realistic number as far as the first part goes, from what I understand.

Under the title "Monthly Hits"--The explanation:

"This is the total number of times someone has viewed your digital content through direct linking. If you have four images or videos linked from your Photobucket account to a webpage and one visitor views the page that is four 'Hits'. Four visitors to a webpage with only one image direct linked is also four 'Hits'. Viewing your images directly through your Photobucket account does not add to the 'Monthly Hits'.

As for private settings not truly being private...I'm about to look into that...that's a little disconcerting.

Oops, sorry, I misread Allison's post...I thought she'd said that she was able to access private files.

I would suggest changing one's settings to private...even if you think that your pictures are not anything special and cannot imagine why someone would be looking at them.

I've only been on here a few days as a registered poster, but have noticed a few things already that make me uncomfortable. My background is in social work and I worked in not-so-nice areas in NYC for a few years, so I tend to try and be aware of certain things... ;) If you are going to post a picture of your home, make your house number and street name blurry. (I just saw one on a plaque this evening on here.) And blur pictures of children as well (even in frames on tables or walls that are in your posted picture). Photobucket has this feature. Yes, they are beautiful and I know you are proud of them, but since ANYONE can view GW without registering (and even then, you don't have to give real info about yourself), it just seems appropiate.

That being said, I hope that doesn't freak any of you out. It's just something I've noticed and try to be aware of myself. Maybe I'm over-reacting, but take it for what it's worth I guess. Now, onto happier conversations. Pet peeves, perhaps?? Hmm, maybe not! :)

Ok, one more thing-after you've made your account private (should you choose). Please don't read this as me *insisting* that you follow my instructions! Only trying to help if it's wanted. So...

Go into your photobucket account. Sign in. Go to your account options. If you haven't made your account private yet, you can do so here. Then UNcheck "images linked back to album". What this means: Uncheck this box if you do not want clicks on images you embed to go to your album. Clicks will instead go to the Photobucket home page. Changing this option will not affect any previously linked files.

So if someone 2 months from now googles, "paint color for dining room", and a post you'd written comes up with pictures attached...anyone can see those pictures, and if your account is NOT private and you haven't unchecked the above mentioned box, there's a good chance that many more pictures of your could be viewed.

Hope that makes sense. Again, I'm sorry if I'm over-explaining this!! I think it's the social work/mommy thing. :)

You can set the Account Options to public, but you can also go to the left column that lists your albums and click on 'edit' for more options. 'Edit' will allow you to make each album/sub-album either private or public. I keep all my albums private except the one I want to share.

That's bizarre. I can't imagine that many people visit here. Do you think they are counting when your images are included in a general search result out there. Rather than actually a direct view. Especially if you title the images. I'm gonna have to check your album out! It must be reallly interesting : )

It is mind-boggling how many people surf the net for information, truly. And it seems unbelievable to us because we are reading threads with a number of recognizable (to us) names, like Annz and Parma and Flyleft and Moonshadow, Kswl and Amity.......etc. So, in our limited view, there are maybe a few dozen people that click on Favorite Yellows or Should I buy this Karastan Rug? But, for every person that posts, (you KNOW this is true since you do it all the time yourself) there are many, many, many, readers. Think of how many threads you read or links you access or stores you pop into due to a link at Garden Web..........but only read, do not comment. Well, multiply that by at least 100. And if you posted a photo in a thread, then, those 100 people who didn't comment, have all looked at your photo, thus creating a 'hit' on your picture site. I posted a recent shot on the "Does Anyone Want to Do a Photo Thread Again" thread on the Discussions side here. I had just uploaded the photo to a Picturetrail site I use. Today, Picturetrail sent me one of those notification emails to tell me that that photo already had like 300 views. Staggering, huh? I would have told my DD to wait till I could strike a nice modelesque pose had I known that it would end up on a little nonsense thread here. Anyway...........Does that mean everyone wanted to see ME? Well, no. (Tear in my left eye right now---catch in my voice.) It just means that anyone that scrolls down through that thread will see that photo. Thus, the hit.

Now, for making your photos private. If you have young children and want them to stay off the Net, then, really, don't put them on the Net. Or make your private family shots private from the beginning. If you are posting photos of your bathroom paint job, or your kitchen cabinets or your new bedroom set, then, you probably want your album public for those pix. Otherwise, who's going to look at them?
Your friends aren't caring about your living room redo on the net. They can go over to your house to see. Those photos are for us decorating crazies who need to see what shade of beige really works with maple cabinets, or how to accessorize a table in the living room just right. And while you may feel like you know Red or RenoFan or Organic and be happy to have them come see your new Marmoleum floor, you may feel less happy that 765 Anonymous People from all parts of the Planet also liked your Tyler Taupe bathroom and your new Antique white kitchen cabinets. But if you are careful with your pictures and try not to include anything truly private or potentially embarrassing, it ought not to be a big problem.

Red

I have separated my family photo settings from the ones of the house. When I checked it this morning there had been 21,730 "hits" on my album for the month of July. As has been explained above, this doesn't mean anyone has been searching my album, per se, but it does give you an idea of the scope of users of this particular forum---the only place my photos are linked!

Sorry, I forgot to add that the "link back to album" was NOT enabled on my photobucket account!

Looking over hits on a web site I run I was pleased to see many addresses from browsers all over the world. Until DH reminded met that 28 people in Nigeria are probably NOT looking for environmental information specific to Wisconsin.

My guess is that many of the hits are not actual people, but are various search programs or spiders. Looking for... passwords? pictures of pretty girls? quilt patterns from Miles? (LOL - love that quilt!) Who knows.

-Lena

Not sure, but my reference to blurring pics of kids was that I've seen decorating pictures on here, that people's kids are in. Family albums that are set to private was not what I meant. :)

Allison0704,

Thank you much!

I spent over 3 hours last night familiarizing myself with Shutterfly/loading photos into my new account.
I think I'm gonna like it there!

Redbazel,
Does that mean everyone wanted to see ME? Well, no. (Tear in my left eye right now---catch in my voice.)

ROFLOL