Google Snubs Publishers

Google today shipped the gold master of its new Internet Explorer toolbar, complete with the oft-criticized autolink feature. eWeek has more including a soundbite from me. While the company made some changes to the Toolbar to give users options, Google still snubbed publishers. Autolink remains and the Toolbar now changes a publisher's content without their permission...with no way to opt-out. Gee, maybe the Google Content Blocker (a spoof) isn't so far from what we might see in the future.

Comments

[Peter Cooper]

I'd be surprised if anyone uses the AutoLink feature at all. I decided to turn on the PC and install it just to see what the hoop-la's about. I went around ten different sites and clicked it. After a second it nearly always came back with "No links found". This was on news sites, product sites, etc. In one case it found an address on a page and linked the address to Google Maps. In one case it found an address that was already linked, and failed to relink it but found it anyway. Pretty useless, and considering how fickle users are, I'd be surprised if it ever got used. Certainly not bothering me, and I'm supposedly one of those who'd stand to lose the most from its use.

[Jonathan Haber]

If you don't like the feature, don't use it.

[Greg]

The point isn't whether anyone will actually use the AutoLink toolbar feature or not. The point is that bloggers and publishers should control their content and hyperlinks and not Google, Inc. or any other company.

[Steve Foster]

It is pretty simple, we have outlawed and prevent the downloding of the toolbar altogether. That solves the entire issue. To much overhead, issues with other apps to make me happy.

I suggest others do the same...

[Anders Floor]

Come on Rubel, get real. Firefox extensions offering the same features are released on a daily basis (Greasemonkey, GooglePreview etc etc) and people are loving it. "Look what we can do! Power to the people! WE decide what we want to see and how we see it". They are the kind of extensions that make people wanna open their window and scream to the world "I love Firefox!!!".

Google provides the same functionality and suddenly it's all about snubbing web publishers?!? Suddenly, webdesigners need to have an opt-out option to prevent any client-side changes?

That's some double standard.