So Google Hijacks Your 404 Pages – Time to Download Yahoo Toolbar Now?
Posted on February 13, 2008
Filed Under News, Review
Its now confirmed that the new Google Toolbar Beta officially hijacks your web browser when you go to a page that no longer exists, and has a 404 page showing. The once innocent seeming company is starting to resemble Microsoft, and their monopolistic do it our way or the highway methods. Matt Cutts confirmed the story after the TechCrunch article it looks like too.
According to Matt Cutts:
404 errors with default error pages
When a visitor tries to reach your content with an invalid URL and your server returns a short, default error message (less than 512 bytes), the Toolbar will suggest an alternate URL to the visitor. If this is a general problem in your website, you will see these URLs also listed in the crawl errors section of your Webmaster Tools account.
If you choose to set up a custom error page, make sure it returns result code 404. The content of the 404 page can help your visitors to understand that they tried to reach a missing page and provides suggestions regarding how to find the content they were looking for. When a site displays a custom error page the Toolbar will no longer provide suggestions for that site. You can check the behavior of the Toolbar by visiting an invalid URL on your site with the Google Toolbar installed.
So this means its that much more important to setup your own custom 404 pages to avoid any missed affiliate sales, pages, or products as a webmaster. For the person just browsing the web though, now we have to worry about this toolbar being labeled as spyware?
If I recall Andy Beard had a bad experience with Google Toolbar’s ‘Personalized Recommendations’, and a not safe for work image a few months back . He was in the process of removing the Google Toolbar anyways, but it was another reason for him to do so.
Oh well maybe its time to go download the Yahoo! Toolbar now, and give it a try.
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18 Responses to “So Google Hijacks Your 404 Pages – Time to Download Yahoo Toolbar Now?”
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Interesting. I didn’t realise any if this.
Mike.
Mike Perry’s last blog post..Research Your Way To Riches
Hi Mike, thanks for stopping by as always. Looks like this feature is for just the beta version of their Google toolbar, and takes over pages that are relatively small (512 bytes) so most people won’t notice it. I’m surprised people actually found this thing out.
Toolbars that just track our activities are bad enough, but most want to take us where the developer wants us to go. For this reason, I do not use toolbars.
CyberCelt’s last blog post..Yahoo! to MSN: R-E-S-P-E-C-T
The only people that could possibly be ticked off about this are the spammers that are trying to make a few extra pennies by placing ads on their 404 pages. Its not that big of a deal and in the grand scheme of things in the internet, the google suggestions are a far better idea than some bone-head with a 404 page full of junk ads.
Judge’s last blog post..Depp, Law and Farrell in the Same Film?
I’m not sure what the uproar is over this. I think they are trying to help people find relevant information to their search because of the number of missing pages on the web. After all, the first line in your quote says “invalid URL”.
Tom’s last blog post..The Long Walk Home
Well, now, that’s just great. I wanted to install Google Toolbar for the “Bookmark” feature, but when it offered to install “Web History”, I began to wonder exactly what went on behind the scenes.
I’ve also been hearing about this old guy filing a lawsuit against Google because of discrimination based on age.
It seems that Google’s sheer size and influence is finally getting to the heads of the heads. IMHO.
~ Wogan
Wogan May’s last blog post..TNX – Linx Exchange Revolution
Is having your own 404 text on a page ‘custom’ enough to avoid triggering this effect?
Huge Mistakes’s last blog post..China bans western cartoons from television
@ Huge Mistakes – Yes usually, 512bytes is like having a page with just text and no images.
@ Wogen – Yea, atleast Google supports Oen source a little bit more than Microsoft did, but the amount of control or influence they are starting to have is becoming scary.
@ Tom – This is just a beginning Tom, what if they decide to change it in later versions to a bigger size, or redirect pages entirely. Also now there’s another function thats been embedded into our browser that has redirecting rights which people will seek to get into maliciously.
This is and the fact that you get spyware downloaded with your toobars as well as it hijacking your browsers all over the place are reasons why I don’t do toolbars. They really aren’t necessary anyways.
interesting info..
yeah, blueyes you are right.. why use toolbars anyway? It’s just a waste of time and space on your browser..
- Wakish -
Wakish’s last blog post..Eduardo Da Silver – The Worse Injury In English Premier League
I’m glad to know about this and will be making sure that sites I manage either deliver more than 512 bytes to redirect the visitor to the site’s home page.
On an unrelated note, I find it ironically funny that the Google adsense block under the post had an ad for the Google Toolbar when I read it.
selif’s last blog post..My Life as Mama Jodi
That really is disgusting. I guess the giant isn’t really sleeping after all…
Haha, no.
Yahoo toolbar does the same thing. And more…. Plus it’s almost impossible to get rid of.
I don’t use either toolbar, or any of any kind. But google would definitely be the preferred choice.
bbrs last blog post..Some tweaks
It’s a shame that these companies continue to fight for users at the expense of the users, if that makes sense, which I think it does.
Hey, this went totally underneath my radar.
But better late than never, so thanks for the post.
Anyway, i’m not a big fan of all these tool bars …
Michaels last blog post..Discover Internet Marketing’s Best Kept Secret
As long as it isn’t taking over all the 404 pages (custom ones designed by the webmaster) that it’s not AS bad as it could be.
Aarons last blog post..Schwinn Jogging Strollers
Probably doesn’t make much difference to anyone right now, but ominous.
Make money be happys last blog post..Big stack of dollars $$$
Great news, Great tips so thank you. I will check it out.