To Briefly Summarize:
If you want to make absolutely certain that the image you wish to use on your blog, website, or whatever, you should "go the extra mile" after selecting the images on Google (or Bing or Yahoo) - even though the image was listed under a usage right that seems to imply it is "free" for reuse for all your intents and purposes.
Make sure the image is licensed for use either as:
Public Domain, or ...
GNU Free Documentation, or ...
Creative Commons, and ... if this latter form of licensing is what the image is published with, be sure to find out who the author/licensor is, and give proper attribution to him or her. Also be sure to read the terms and see if a link back to the author's original content page is required and, if so, do so.
In Conclusion:
There are an incredible amount of images that are available online for reuse, "freely", but oftentimes with some stipulations. No, it is not as easy as just cherry-picking whatever you want out of the massive sea of images you find on Google.
Nevertheless, the amount of images that are available on Google - with certain precautions and measure taken - are so many that, so far, I have never been unable to find at least one that suited my needs. And I have a niche site on ethnic foods, with over 600 pages of recipes, each recipe with at least one image on it, sometimes more.
Just be sure, to avoid any possibility of licensing or copyright infringement, that you follow the steps put forth in this training, and hey -
Happy and Carefree Image Hunting and Reusing!
I hope you found this training to be of help. Please do click on the green "Like This" button for me, and leave a comment if you would like to, as well.
Reply
"So, as long as you use the image exactly as it is, without modifying it in any way, you are free to do so."
Does that include the name of the picture and it's extension? If so, what if I need to change it to a .png or .jpg or .gif or .bmp?
You advise the learner to do a Google Search, if this is indeed where you want the search to start, they will not be able to follow the rest of the tutorial as you are assuming that they know the difference between a Google Search Bar and a Google IMAGE Search Bar.
The latter is the one you are referring to and is the image/screenshot you are alluding to.
So, either you need to change the wording to Google Image Search, or you need to put an extra step in the tutorial to advise them to do a Google Images Search, this will then give them the a list of websites, and then they click on Google Images which will THEN render the Google Image Search bar.
Hope this makes sense.
