Philosophical question:
If you post a graphic on the internet, and Google is not there to index them, do they really exist?
I'm far too pragmatic to answer that philosphically...imagine that depends on how one uses Google Images as a research tool. I use it as a shortcut to the article I am looking for, as most do have images, so the Google Images lead me to the article...
If I do not find the article I am looking for through the images index, I go to Google Search, it takes longer, but I do find what I am after; the article itself.
Google Images index is very fickle, not every image from an article is shown. Images are also manipulated. Example -an image of a marriage certificate provided as a link on an FR comment to this thread was brought up and posted on the Google Images pages, as a later substitute for an obama CoLB.
Philosophically, if Google manipulates their image selections as I have observed, then yes, the images exist! (Like pieces of film on the cutting room floor perhaps?)
If a tree falls in a forest with no one to hear it, then does it make a sound?