public bucket and search engine

[TheRafa]

Hi,

I have a public bucket  in google storage with some images.  

If I do not public on the web any Public Url of my images, is it posible for the search engine to find this public url's? or I need to publish first on the web?

thanks

[ErnestoC]

According to this previous response, Google search will not automatically index Cloud Storage public URLs, and there is no special relationship between these two services. If you have GCS images or static files in a website, then the regular behavior of Google crawling and indexing will apply. Can you share more about your use case for GCS public URLs? Did you run into a problem with the access controls of your GCS objects?

[TheRafa]

Hi Ernesto.

I am using google storage for a lot of images stored by appsheet. The employes take images and register their work.

My problem is that I want some automatic notifications and reports generated with apps script.

Example : automatic html with images (of the bucket). in the HTML I need a tag like

<img src=someimage_bucket_url  >

If the bucket is public, the emails shows the images for everyone.  But if it is private the images does not show in the email.  

My concern is that images are taken in my clients stores showing their problems. For example a defective manufactured product. If I use a public bucket and some images are indexed by google search this could be a serious problem. 

Thanks for reading me.

[ErnestoC]

An alternative you could follow is to use Signed URLs instead of public URLs for your image objects. Signed URLs can be configured for anyone to access the object for a specified amount of time, and afterwards the URL becomes invalid. You can review the options for generating signed URLs from the documentation. 

Using Signed URLs also allows you to set up the permissions users will have over the objects, given that these permissions come from the service account that created the URL.

[TheRafa]

Hi,

I will learn about signed URLs. 

For your answer I am not sure if a public URL will be indexed in google search system. Obviously  I will not publish any of this URLs.

[pfrankwicz]

Hi The Rafa;  Can URL control of data be too risky if a hacker gets creative?  A signed URL can be used by anyone who has it.  Storage data encryption methods to control access to files might be a better option.  This would create a key system to manage but would secure access to the images uploaded to your storage.  I found some interesting material -- check cloud.google.com/storage/docs/encryption and cloud.google.com/docs/security/encryption/default-encryption#encryption_at_the_storage_system_layer  thanks; pfrankwicz