I am encountering the same problem all my sites when typing invalid url it redirects to google ads, I have also 404 redirct in my .htaccess file but still redirected to google
Just went to check my site and although I have a custom 404 page set up through htaccess that used to bring people back, I am now seeing the D*****D Google thing and I don't even use toolbars! What we need now is someone showing us how to set up a concerted effort that may (or may not) get their attention and stop this atrocity NOW! Would flooding their inbox work, do you think? I know I'm off to write a steamy letter!! (Although I will have to count to ten a few dozen times to keep the language clean.)
If they seriously go ahead with this i will turn off 404 headers and send http 200 instead google are f****** desparate! they are over riding my sites design for their own profit no way in hell GOOGLE ARE EVIL!
Took about 20 minutes to find SOMEWHERE on their website to even send an email through a contact form. Google doesn't seem to care whether they hear from anyone or not. Finally found one in their toolbar support, so at least one stormtrooper of the empire will read my wrath. This is out and out site hacking and should be considered a crime. I don't run much adsense anyway and that only because I have yet to find anybody else very effective. ImageAds is more of a Clickbank clone; MyCashJunction has vanished; several other groups have been hopeless. I usually do my searching through alternate engines. Any suggestions as to how to stop the Google-Net or replace it are still open to implementation.
wide open west does the same through dns. if a domain does not resolve, off to yahoo ya go. also, amber alerts were distributed by dns as well. after an amber alert was issued, the first website i tried to go to took me to the ambert alert page with an option to continue to the destination website. i have not seen any amber alerts lately, so maybe they stopped. it's all about traffic, and there are few not willing to push the envelope to capture it...
Google is big and getting bigger. Its no suprise when a big company goes unchecked they start using unfair practices..with atleast 75% market share are they becoming the new microsoft?..
Your 404 is setup incorrectly. Your 404 is also setup incorrectly. A very good way to confuse the search engines and risk all your rankings. I highly advise NOT to do this.
Well, I run my websites the same way I play Pinball; straight and clean. All the "blackhatters" can be condemned to their private purgatories so far as I am concerned. Big or small, any of these "many" who will stoop to trickery, deception or bullying are another brick in the wall against decent human behavior and a better world to live in.
Well, buddy, it was working fine for over two years! If we are ALL so uninformed as to how to setup our websites, why don't you tell us "how its supposed to be done. humm?
Try researching the topic, there is loads of info out there. http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/custom404.shtml
Funny you should mention them... THAT IS WHERE I GOT THE INFORMATION TO SET MINE UP IN THE FIRST PLACE! Sheesh, It really is a small world after all!
It is a small world my friend. Play around with invalid urls on your blog and you'll see why I pointed you out. For some reason its acting funny, at times your 404 is being displayed and other times its the front page of your blog. Are you using a 404 plugin?
Hello again Cormac, No plugins, I do straight coding and did it in htaccess. As for playing around with it, I have done that off and on over the last few years. I even did it on a few other's computers when showing them where to find my site. It is not a "blog" all by itself but I do have one section on the site set up that way. Siggy link 2, the "Interesting Times News". Thanks for caring though. If I came across as flaming mad, please accept that it is just rage at a good thing that had helped my traffic for years has gone bad and it is because of a big corporate bully.
No no I understand and yes its very frustrating when something like this happens. If anything I was testing and talking about the Ancient Riddles site on your recent blog post link. Looking at the Interesting Times News site I can see the issue you are upset about. I can also see the server does supply a HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found for that site. Have you setup a custom 404 for the Interesting Times site? I'd be interested in looking into this more although I need to sprint off and check what my own sites are doing.
if you don't want Google to hijack ur 404 error pages on your browser try uninstalling it! I think it's your choice that u install it. I think that would solve the issue on "hijacking 404 pages". Just a suggestion...
I did a blog post at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/404-pages-in-google-toolbar/ if people want to read more about how this works. The short answer is that customized 404 pages shouldn't be affected (any page that is more than 512 bytes).