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TechCrunch wrote an interesting article today regarding how the Google Toolbar 5 Beta for Internet Explorer “hijacks” the browser’s 404 error page. When you have the toolbar installed Google will look to see if the page you’re looking for doesn’t exist, and it will try to point you in the right direction if that’s the case. It’s just trying to give a helping hand, but TechCrunch said:
For 404 pages to be hijacked in this way, be it in all cases or only some, removes the rights of the webmaster to decide what a user sees when visiting all parts of their website, and that’s something many will find wrong.
I installed the Google Toolbar 5 Beta to see just how this worked, and the toolbar only shows the “Oops! This link appears broken.” message when the webmaster hasn’t designated a custom 404 error page. So I’m wondering what the problem is? As you can see in the screenshot above the Google 404 error page recommended a lot of useful stuff when I tried to pull up a part of our forum that didn’t exist.
I was also really surprised to see anyone care about this since it can be disabled in the settings as I expected. Just pull up the configuration and uncheck the Browse by name in the address bar option. Voila! And Google does provide the instructions on how to turn it off right there on the error page. Just click on the “Why am I seeing this page?” link.
When looking at this I made sure to remember that users “choose” to install the toolbar (I use the term “choose” loosely since toolbars like this are often bundled with application installers), and therefore accept any features it offers. What do you think? Is this just another step towards Google’s plan to takeover the world?
I actually think that’s a great idea by Google. Sometimes when I go to a website and it gives me a 404 error, I would like to search Google for terms I was looking to find on that site. I do think that it should have been disabled by default but I think it’s a good idea overall.
I like the idea. As long as Google allow users to disable the option I don’t see a problem with it.
This certainly seems like a useful feature to me and I don’t see any issues with it either.
I use the ErrorZilla Firefox extension for 404 pages, so I’m not sure what the big deal is?
Matt Cutts wrote about this today… the toolbar only shows their new page if the 404 page is less than 512 bytes, meaning you didn’t make a custom error page for your site.
[mattcutts.com]
Personally I don’t see why this would be a problem… users get frustrated with 404 pages, and this is a nice change.
Finally, I agree with Vincent… I use ErrorZilla and love it… same thing as this new feature.
Of course if it’s disabled by default hardly anyone would ever think to enable it, which I think is the problem that Google faced.
That makes a lot of sense how they determine it, and I hope that they don’t go and disable it by default because of all this. I think a lot of users can really benefit from it. The other option they would have is to ask users if they want it enabled after the add-on is installed.
I use OpenDNS which does the same thing, only at the DNS level if a page can’t be contacted. Google and Dell have been doing this since last year which really seemed tto hit a nerve at OpenDNS as this blog post will show [blog.opendns.com]
Myself I prefer using OpenDNS for this rather than Google. As long as there is a method to turn it off I don’t care if they put this functionality in, but I do wish their installer would spell it out with the option to turn it off during installation rather than changing a setting after installation. Overall I think i will be a useful feature for many people.
I haven’t ever used OpenDNS, but have been pretty tempted to give it a shot. A lot of my friends say it is great, but I have also heard them complain when the service has gone down and they are left trying to figure out why their Internet isn’t working. I’m not sure how often that actually happens though.
I have never had an issue with OpenDNS. That said any networked service is likely to go down at some point. That is why I always keep my ISP’s DNS server addresses handy for just in case. So far though I have had no issues. Part of what got me to use OpenDNS was some issues with AT&T’s DNS servers at one point. I have been very satisfied. They include Phishing filters at the DNS level, plus the ability to filter for many other items like adult web sites, and more. Once you use it I think you will like it.
Ever since I made my last comment I realized some additional reasons to use OpenDNS, for one if you use it with your router it protects everything connecting through your router including iPhones, Windows Mobile devices, Palm’s, etc… Anything that uses a wired or wireless signal gets the same protections you turn on for your account. It’s a very simple way to have additional security. If you try it Ryan I think you will find you like it; you can use as much or as little of the protection as you like and it is all controlled through a web browser interface which makes it quite simple.
Those are definitely some great features, and I think you’ve convinced me to try it out. You should be a sales person.