Looks like some folks are very upset about Google using the toolbar to redirect traffic to sites of their choice. http://news.com.com/Googles+linking+toolbar+raises+ire+online/2100-1032_3-5582792.html?tag=html.alert This could be a way for Google to direct traffic to their favorite websites (advertisers) and away from yours, directly to your competitor from the content on your pages, in the same way they enable adwords customers to pull traffic from related pages on sites that publish Adsense. What do you all think about this?
As long as they give the option to select from a list, or have an "other" option to fill in a url, I don't think it's a bad thing. The problem with MS doing the same thing with Smart Tags was that it was always to MSN related sites.
Remember who told you guys that the toolbar was a real time MIS device long ago, well it is just that.
There is a real uproar going on in the industry over this linking toolbar. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5590568.html?tag=zdnn.alert I guess if I was using the toolbar on Digital Point it would lead me directly to another forum or software company based on the advertisers paying Google for the link based on the page content here.
People are actively fighting against it. Some guy has even developed a script to kill it. Haven’t tried it myself, but seems like an easy enough solution. http://www.searchguild.com/autoblink/ But you shouldn’t have to include any extra script to prevent from someone using your content without your permission and diverging your visitors to potential competitor’s web sites. .
Do no evil bon, it is not evil if I can redirect "your traffic", who's traffic is it, that is the question, if Google delivered it to you in the first place??? Gota Love Larry and Sergey, play ball with them or get smashed out of the business. Choose your evil right now, it is M$ or Google or the real solution "OPEN SOURCE", I think most smart folks will choose open source in the end if they value their business IBM is open source folks.
I wouldn't go as far as calling Google evil for this move and comparing them to MS. I think that the general web outcry AGAINST auto link is being heard by google and they will surely offer webmasters some sort of fix.
Your right, they love us more than money and would never be unfaithful or tell a lie to us webmasters, they also have an affinity for SEO's as we all know in addition to those who buy and sell links. Microsoft cares about data security also
Really they should just drop the auto-link feature altogether. I think it has received enough bad press by this point that it may actually happen.
Google has never really changed because of what others think unless laws are passed like the California law against G-mail. If you think the linking toolbar is bad for webmasters wait until the full blown browser comes out that will output ADSENSE within the browser based on content of the page without paying any publisher
i think Google have its reputation already.. It just varies to every user. some get their deserve traffic..some gets it then do not.. varies..
Absolutely right. tool bar results are based on only past data. We can not totally rely on tool bar results.
Yup. Yup. Kevin Parker should be banned. Which would be a first of many for Ant4hony Cea. C'mon people check the date of the original post date before replying.