duplicate content question

When google looks at duplicate content, do they look at images also.

What I mean is, can google look at different images saved in different formats with different sizes and determine that they are the same content on a different domain.

I am wanting to create multiple sites in the same niche, which will have different templates and text content, but I am wondering if google will be able to spot the same images, even if they are in different formats and named differently.

Please let me know if you have any experience with this.

hard to know, probably not...

Sure they can, just look at the new google image search: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html


However their Image search algorithm is different from the normal search results algorithm; so who knows if the search algo also includes this image algo?

May be yes.

I remember reading on one of google's blogs that they are getting much better at understanding images: is it a person? Word? What's the context? It's similar to how some of the captcha solving tools work.

Up to you whether it's worth the risk. Short answer - yes they'll be able to tell it's the same image. Question is: does it matter?