Google’s browser toolbar includes a feature that inserts new hyperlinks in Web pages—and that’s raising concerns from some observers that the search kings have a powerful tool to steer traffic to where Google thinks best.
The AutoLink button in the toolbar, when installed in Internet Explorer, produces a default link to Google’s map service if the surfer lands on a Web page with a street address. If a book publisher’s page includes ISBN numbers, AutoLink triggers a link to Amazon.com, and never mind if the surfer had ideas about going to Barnes & Noble or Borders Websites.
And if the Web page shows a vehicle ID license, AutoLink reportedly slips in a default link to Carfax.com. Package tracking numbers on the site? Hit AutoLink and you’re going automatically to shippers’ Websites, whether or not you planned to go there right off.
That’s according to several published reports which say some are accusing Google of taking a page out of Microsoft’s old playbook—the software empire’s old Smart Tags feature did the same thing AutoLink is now accused of doing, and Microsoft finally had to yank that program because of trade and antitrust alarms.
"Google is to the Web what Microsoft is to PCs--the operating system everyone uses to search,” wrote Micropersuasion blogger Steve Rubel. “It has nearly the same lock on consumers' share of mind...And millions use the Google Toolbar. They shouldn't get away with what Microsoft was unable to."
Google director of Web products Marissa Mayer defended AutoLink, telling reporters the design team had “a healthy debate” over how it would work before releasing it. "This is a user-elected feature. Upon clicking the link, we make these modifications the way you'd like us to modify the page," Mayer said. "Google has great respect for copyright owners. They're the lifeblood of search."
"This is crybabies attempting to stifle innovative new ideas, talking about lawsuits to get themselves publicity,” wrote a CNET.com reader, James Lamb, in defense of Google. “In a sense, what they're doing is no different from what they accuse Google of: Profiting--or helping others to profit--from a third party's work. It's a user-initiated function. You don't have to download the toolbar, you don't have to click the button.”
Microsoft, for its part, suggested the AutoLink problem could provoke more controversy.
"If I'm on Company A's Web site, and a third party is allowing me to direct me to Company B, there will be some controversy over who controls whose information," said former Microsoft chief privacy offer Richard Purcell, now chief executive of Corporate Privacy Group.
