Preventing Google and Yahoo image searches?

[keithj]

I searched the forum here and found that I need to put robots.txt and .htmaccess files and add some information to my template headers to prevent Google and Yahoo image searches but I am wondering if that is really necessary.  I really don't know anything about how their searches work but if I have my site set to login access only, how would the Google and Yahoo robots be able to figure out what images I have on my site if they can't log in?  I could see how they'd get through my site if I didn't have logins activated but can they somehow bypass the login page and find my images?

Keith

[Tranz]

If your gallery requires login, then you don't have to worry about the bots accessing the images.

[keithj]

Thanks.  That's what I kinda thought but figured I'd make sure.

Keith

[Tranz]

Well, they can't access the pages that are password-protected, but if someone posts a direct link to the image file in a public place, the images could be accessed by the bot and other humans.