Google AutoLink Questioned

The Google Toolbar is a useful addition to Internet Explorer. It will not work with other browsers, although there is an independently developed Googlebar that Firefix and Mozilla can use.

Google just recently came out with Toolbar 3.0 beta with support for AutoLink that adds hyperlinks Google deems useful to the Web pages you visit. The idea is to automate the process of jumping from a street address to, say, a map, sparing users having to retype or copy the address.

An article in the Washington Post points out that there is a controversy about whether Google has the right to add links to pages authored by others. For now, AutoLink works in only four categories: street addresses (whisking you to Google Maps by default, but you can switch to MapQuest or Yahoo Maps); ISBN numbers (linking to Amazon.com book pages); package tracking numbers (pointing to DHL, FedEx, United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service); and vehicle identification numbers (jumping to car history reports at CarFax.com), but what would be the case if Google started selling ads for keywords, and whenever that keyword appeared in a page you authored, and if they suddenly converted that keyword into a hot link to the page of the person who bought the ad. Generally a web page designer likes to decide what hot links to include in his page, and where they should link to, and most web page designer would not be happy to know that Google was going to "modify their work" and add links to some page of someone that paid Google money to have their page linked to.


See JackLewis for links to more Blogs discussing this.