Google Won't Backdown on AutoLink
Posted on March 8, 2005
Google has continued with its desire to include the AutoLink feature with its downloadable browser toolbar. The AutoLink feature can change content on a webpages. For example, AutoLink can turn an address into a live link to Google Maps or an ISBN number into a link to Amazon. Publisher and webmasters are united in their outrage at Google's AutoLink feature.
An Industry Standard column speculates that this is just growing frustration against Google from Gmail and other issues, but there are genuine technical issues with AutoLink.
Would Google want a competitor to launch a software product that allowed websurfers to change links on Google's search results? Would Google want Microsoft to be able to turn text in Google's search results into links to a Microsoft resource? The answer is obviously no. So why does Google feel it has the right to change the links on publishers' and bloggers' content?
