Comments on: New Google Toolbar Beta Hijacks 404 Pages?

By: sumaphil.de

sumaphil.de — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:23:44 +0000

24/7 - Der Wochenrückblick (KW 07/08)…

yigg_url=’http://www.sumaphil.de/’;Fast geschafft, der letzte Nachhol-Rückblick fürs Erste:

Der Yahoo-Übernahme-Poker geht weiter. Nachdem sich Jerry Yang offensichtlich kampfbereit zeigte, scheint Microsoft nun konsequent eine feindl…

By: Google Officially Hijacks 404 Pages, What Do You Think?

Google Officially Hijacks 404 Pages, What Do You Think? — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:34:12 +0000

[…] our story yesterday on reports that the new beta version of Google’s Toolbar hijacks 404 pages, Google’s […]

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:25:46 +0000

RE: #93

Well, I just figured out you actually don’t have to log in to your Road Runner account. Looks like it sends you to http://ww23.rr.com/prefs.php and maybe sets a cookie. Anyway, it still pisses me off that Time Warner is sorta-kinda hijacking non-existent domain error pages (and my browser).

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:08:18 +0000

On the same note…

I live in Arlington, Texas and just noticed that Time Warner Cable (Road Runner High Speed Online) has hijacked all URL’s that aren’t registered. The html title of the page that comes up is “Website Suggestions.” What a joke. It has a Yahoo search at the very top and the very bottom (jeez, imagine that), Sponsored Results and Web Results in the middle. But around the edges it is totally whored out. Generic monetization out the wazoo. The only reason people won’t be able to gripe is because you can opt out of the “service” (but you have to go to Road Runner and log into your internet account to do it). Is this the new trend? Is everybody going to try this until people just give up?

By: lory

lory — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:49:35 +0000

here’s no excuse to expose technology failures to the masses. The masses should not have to worry about what a 404 error is, and they should never realize that they have a bad URL. The “web” (Google-powered, or whoever) should be assisting people and helping them find what they need to find. Errors are failures, and users should be sheltered from failures. As architects of the web, that’s part of our responsibility.

By: webgoddess

webgoddess — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:40:39 +0000

Not only does google hijack 404 pages, but if you have an iframe within your page and the page that is pulled into that iframe results in a 404, even if the page that contains the iframe is working properly, google hijacks the ENTIRE page with their custom 404. unbelievably lame!

By: FreeBee

FreeBee — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:51:53 +0000

I don’t see how it could be a problem for webmasters either… If someone can’t be bothered to spend more than .5kB on their custom 404-page (really, 512 bytes is NOTHING, after all), which people are going to see whenever ANYTHING goes wrong, then such a person isn’t even worth the TITLE of webmaster. At least Google then offers the user some solutions.

They should be honored for that!

By: Landwehr Online Reputation Management

Landwehr Online Reputation Management — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:15:53 +0000

Google Toolbar hijackt 404 Seiten…

Laut Berichten von mehreren amerikanischen Bloggern hijackt die neuste Betaversion der Google Toolbar 404 Fehlerseiten.
Der Statuscode 404 bedeutet “File not found” und wird immer dann ausgegeben wenn ein Surfer versucht ein Dokument aufzur…

By: the Patrician

the Patrician — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:47:48 +0000

I would like to send a “raspberry” to everyone who complained about this webmaster starting the dialog about this problem/nonproblem.

It was here that I discovered that I needed to up the size of my custom 404 to greater than 512 bytes. Since I did, this is no longer a problem.

I am sure it never was a problem for you mere surfers.

It was a problem for webmasters and I thank techcrunch for supplying me with a solution!

By: Vixen Lee

Vixen Lee — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:54:29 +0000

Come on peoples. Internet Explorer replaces the default 404 error page, too, but I don’t see you complaining. And Google replaces it with more helpful hints! o.O

By: kobak pont org

kobak pont org — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:52:53 +0000

404 és a google toolbar…

Kedves bloggerek, webmesterek, itt az ideje, hogy elkészüljön a 404-es hibakódra a megfelelő oldala mindenkinek, mert különben a google lenyúlja a látogatódat!
Eddig a beharangozó bulvár főcím. Magyarul, ha valaki beüti a böngészőjéb…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:44:54 +0000

Welcome to Techcrunch the new anti-google propaganda machine sponsored by M$

By: Cat Chen

Cat Chen — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:08:23 +0000

For the first time I saw this, I was clicking on a Google search result item, so I thought it just meant to tell you that the result link was broken. But then I saw it even if I type in an address directly, and I thought I might call it a hijacking.

By: amy fisher tape

amy fisher tape — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:12:49 +0000

google can use this data and register a sh#$tload of domains and make all the arbitrage money themselves.

By: art

art — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:53:51 +0000

Why are there uninformed comments still? For the umpteenth time, custom 404s aren’t replaced.

Secondly, I’m disappointed in the original poster for not even testing it out, although you really seemed to imply the general practice was unsavory.

Which leads me to my final point of this functionality being super useful over regular unuseful 404s.

But hey, you got a lot of traffic right? I guess that was the case. Misinform people and stand back.

By: Eric

Eric — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:53:20 +0000

This would be awfully wrong. But hey, why does Google care? More FREE advertising! (at the expense of hijacked webmasters) Man, they take every chance they can get to shamefully promote their brand image.

By: Zubin

Zubin — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:28:59 +0000

This post has some clarifications:

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/.....e-toolbar/

By: Jon Deutsch

Jon Deutsch — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:37:06 +0000

I think Google is aiding in usability and capitalizing on it. Good for friggin’ them. No average user should be bothered with error messages, and if Google can plug that usability hole with some value, then I say, take the revenue and run.

There’s no excuse to expose technology failures to the masses. The masses should not have to worry about what a 404 error is, and they should never realize that they have a bad URL. The “web” (Google-powered, or whoever) should be assisting people and helping them find what they need to find. Errors are failures, and users should be sheltered from failures. As architects of the web, that’s part of our responsibility.

Simple. Elegant. Usable.

Jon

Like my philosophy? Hire me as your user experience maverick: emailme@myself.com. Good rates, tremendous value.

By: Ayush

Ayush — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:21:21 +0000

This is for your own good people. Google does no evil and they know better than you do in any case.

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Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:53:27 +0000

[…] Neue Google Toolbar hijackt 404 Fehlerseiten - geile Monetarisierungsstrategie […]

By: yaph

yaph — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:51:45 +0000

Where are the GoogleAds on the screenshot or is this still to come?

By: Bilal Farooqui

Bilal Farooqui — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:36:20 +0000

This is pretty much as bad as DNS hijacking [that verisign did a few yrs ago, and more recently ISPs like earthlink started doing]. I’m surprised we haven’t heard more about this, this really sucks. Perhaps Google is finally employing “suits” as prod managers, not “geeks”, no self-respecting geek would hijack a 404 page.

By: How to be Evil | Keener Living

How to be Evil | Keener Living — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:18:16 +0000

[…] Google, despite its mantra to do no evil, is thought by some to be doing evil in its apparent “hijacking” of 404-error pages. I agree that, based on what little I know about this so far, I don’t like it. Update: Matt […]

By: ian holsman

ian holsman — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:18:09 +0000

I’m guessing it won’t be long before the virus scanners treat the google toolbar as a virus

By: Tech4um.com Technology Forum

Tech4um.com Technology Forum — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:10:42 +0000

At the end of the day, Google is a for-profit company wanting to make money like everyone else. Microsoft used to have the image Google has now as the angels of the industry. Sooner or later, Google will be no different.

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