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

By: Random Acts of Linkage #48 : Subversive Influence

Random Acts of Linkage #48 : Subversive Influence — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:16:42 +0000

[...] Google Officially Hijacks 404 Pages — Google will take you where they want you to go today? [...]

By: milos

milos — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:07:29 +0000

While ago I had a similar feature in my Groowe Toolbar for Firefox. Although there was an option to disable the feature, I have received many negative feedbacks from the users so I have discontinued with the feature in the next release.

Also, you can’t imagine what kind of sites people are visiting and you can’t predict what will this feature cause. For example, one user complained that he can’t access one site with 404 feature enabled. When I have visited the specified site, I have realized that it was illegal MP3 site, totally functional, full HTML pages, but it sends 404 on all pages not to get caught by crawler bots. Crazy…

Basically, I guess that average Internet users won’t even note the difference, but the IT professionals and advanced Internet users might rather want to see the real 404 error pages.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:53:29 +0000

And I thought they aimed not to be evil.

By: Greg Andrew

Greg Andrew — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:33:46 +0000

Your “poll” is equivalent to taking a “who will be the next U.S. president” poll right now and limiting the choices to Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani. and and Joe Biden. Not that these Internet polls are ever scientific, but when all three choices are obviously wrong, what’s the point? Are you just that anxious to piss away TechCrunch’s credibility? There’s a difference between being provocative to create controversy and coming off like a 6-year old that needs a new babysitter, and this post clearly qualifies as the latter.

I suggest you get Michael to spank you and then go to your room without supper, and then limit your diet for the next week to nothing but raw spinach and asparagus.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 06:36:14 +0000

That is one loaded question if I have ever seen one…. No one likes anybody hijacking anything. Basically the question is introducing bias so poll has skewed results.

By: And

And — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:26:48 +0000

Screw of google. Damn it. This is over the line

By: fizetés és állás

fizetés és állás — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:50:18 +0000

I dont care at all and btw what could Ido against google’s power? I consider this as a service

By: Hommel-Net Weblog

Hommel-Net Weblog — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:57:32 +0000

Google Toolbar manipuliert 404-Seiten…

Die neue Beta-Version der Google-Toolbar verändert ungefragt die Anzeige von 404-Fehlerseiten von Webservern und ersetzt sie durch eine Seite im Google-Stil mit Links zu übergeordneten Seiten und Suchmöglichkeiten. Die 404-Fehlerseite erscheint, w…

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:38:48 +0000

“when Verisign started hijacking similar non page results, there was a mighty uproar”

Come on…

Verisign were hijacking DNS queries on the server side, with no opt-out facility, which effectively broke DNS. They started doing it without warning.

Google has added a custom error page to its *optional* software, which other browsers already do anyway. It only kicks in when the page returns a short, unhelpful 404 error. It’s harmless except that it may redirect some small amount of traffic to their site. They’re not making any secret of it. It’s easy for webmasters to fix. There’s no comparing the two really.

Come on Techcrunch, you can do better than this sensationalist journalism. Get the facts right and present them in a more balanced way please.

By: Juan C. Sosa

Juan C. Sosa — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:37:50 +0000

That is something evil you should always expect from a big fish like Google, Microsoft does the same with Explorer, and You and Me would be considering doing the same should we be in their market dominance position.

By: Ayush

Ayush — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:16:28 +0000

thin edge of the wedge. evil.

By: sami

sami — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:56:52 +0000

So what if IE has been doing this for so long. I like Google because it was no Microsoft.

“So if you’re a webmaster and want users to see your custom 404 page, just make your page be more than 512 bytes long.”

That’s just an arrogant statement. If you have a 404 page, not matter how many bytes in it, no one has right to change it, and in Google’s case, for their profit.

By: TwisterMc

TwisterMc — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:06:41 +0000

OpenDNS does this too and I hate that I can’t turn it off. Google’s looks a lot nicer and I think it’ll greatly help novice searchers. So it’s good and bad.

By: Mykel

Mykel — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:03:12 +0000

Don’t install toolbars.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:30:57 +0000

Who cares really? As several have already mentioned, Internet Exploder 6 already does this and I’ve never seen complaints about it. The links Google provides are likely to be more useful than those in IE6.

By: MikeW

MikeW — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:28:45 +0000

What a loaded question. You are using the term “hijacking” in the title of the article. Everyone loves hijacking!

By: Peter Kasting

Peter Kasting — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:25:09 +0000

Why on Earth are the people complaining about this not complaining about the EXACT SAME HEURISTIC that IE has already been using for a long time to replace sites’ 404 pages? Google is not doing _anything_ different than IE here yet I’ve never heard a single complaint about IE’s behavior.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:23:32 +0000

I would like to see a mass boycot of google. Everyone should not allow them to crawl their sites. It would be an interesting experiment.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:22:34 +0000

Its a pretty creative move for google. Anything that will increase their exposure. Of course webmasters may not be the happiest though.

By: AW

AW — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:07:05 +0000

@56: He doesn’t go back and correct his posts when he makes an error.

I think Duncan’s role on TechCrunch is purely to be hyper-sensationalist with all his articles, where-as Michael provides more “sane” posts.

Maybe Duncan posts when TechCrunch has a slump in traffic and needs more readers?

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:54:28 +0000

Not sure the big deal - if you don’t like it uninstall their toolbar! Seems to be a decision that the user is in control over.

By: WinExtra

WinExtra — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:54:07 +0000

Google getting another pass?…

Not so long ago another company decided that it would be a really cool idea to snag all 404 results from web searches and redirect the call to a handy service called SiteFinder. Of course that company was Verisign and the backlash against their …

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:53:14 +0000

I use Roadrunner and they are also hijacking 404 codes and incorrect domains with their own search page with ad links.

By: mathias

mathias — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:47:02 +0000

Do no evil…YEAH RIGHT!!!

By: xxdesmus

xxdesmus — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:44:24 +0000

It’s a really sh*tty thing for Google to do. They are quite good at assuming they always know what is best for the user, and yet they very rarely get it right. Google definitely overstepped their boundary with customers.