March 23, 2005
Of Auto Slopes and Slippery Links
Why in the whole world the geeks go ga-ga on simple code snippet that resides on the toolbar of google at toolbar.google.com and only when downloaded, activated and clicked every single time, actually works. I am not even bothered about if Autolink is an evil in the goddamned wicked world of internet. I'm just concerned about how a simple thing because of it's bad naming, gets screwed up right royally even at it's beta version.
If you are completely unaware about the snippet and the toolbar stuff, here is a quick re-cap. Google's new toolbar beta release included a feature called Autolink. I am hell upset about the naming. Will come to that a little later. Soon after it's BETA release, the feature autolink becomes a top-rated keyword in blogosphere. Reason, top bloggers like Dave Winer, Scoble and others start criticising Google for introducing an evil called Autolink.
If you were to browse through an online library catalog and looking at the book list, you would find the ISBN number of that book published next to it. Let's assume it's there. And you are looking at a book named Idiot's Guide to Web Links, you see no more information about it. If you want to see more on this book, most probably you might hit Amazon and search for the title of the book. Instead, how would it be if Google would locate all the ISBN numbers on the web page and auto link you to the respective books on Amazon. Fabulous isn't it. Saves time and a dozen more clicks. Similarly for package delivery confirmation, Vehicle number[VIN] checking and ofcourse for the address linking, Google provides a solution on it's BETA version of it's new toolbar release. All this autolinking happens only if you follow these steps religiously,
a) Download Google toolbar.
b) Activate Autolinking option.
c) Click on Autolink button everytime you want the toolbar to provide autolinks for a particular page.
Now this Autolink is what some people call as Slippery Slope or Evil. Opinionated Bloggers have already taken sides on this debate. And it's still running full house. The point is, I don't see even traces of evil here. If a sane person downloads Google Toolbar, enables autolinking option on the toolbar and clicks every single time on the Autolink button when he needs to see the links, he needs Google to do autolinks. Where is the question of Google changing web content by providing links. It's just a code snippet that works on tthe local copy of the webpage on your machine. It isn't making a global change to the page on the servers. If you need it, you get it, else buzz off and keep off from coming to Google. One of the arguments that these Autolink critics offer is that Google might make this as an compulsory option in the subsequent releases of their toolbar and it would affect the ethics of web page linking. Now that you say can be seen as evil. As long as they provide an option to opt-out of this Autolinks, we are good to go. I am hoping for the kind of character, Google has displayed until day, as a company, they are trust-worthy.
Yet again Microsoft comes to picture. Their introduction of a similar[similar not same] linking procedure called Smart Tags was turned down by the industry analysts and hence was taken back. So the analysts want to take back this Autolink feature of Google as well. Until the time Google stays with the current ethics and integrity, their software would rock. If going public is going to change Google's way of the web, let Satan eat their pigeon ranking code and make a mighty burp. Peace.
Comments (10)
eVil is what Sergey says is eVil
Posted by: shodZ | March 23, 2005 2:18 PM
agreed lg. someone had written asking "what if the link takes me to a wrong link/solution?" . They dont realize the search for that particular word is again going to give the same result(if he uses google as the search engine for that search also)
its nothing but "who-are-you-to-tell-me-let-me-decide-this" stuff.
Posted by: J V Cruz | March 23, 2005 5:47 PM
I think that the critics of AutoLink are not merely concerned about labelling it/google evil. Their main point is concern over the Web taking this direction. Say, tomorrow, after we all get used to AutoLink (because, frankly, it is quite useful), what if ISPs put in their level of linking or even link-tampering? Then, this feature might slip through without attention. People are thinking of 50 years down the line.
Also, Google's current image should not be a factor in this decision, mainly because such policies are transitory - companies like Microsoft also had a very good image when they started up. A single change at the top of the company can change a lot of things.
Anyway, this is not my opinion - just a presentation of their views. For some interesting discussions, see
http://bitsko.slc.ut.us/blog/autolink-firefox.html,
http://diveintomark.org/projects/butler/
Posted by: Sanketh | March 23, 2005 10:31 PM
Lazy,
Toolbar is primarily used with IE. Who in their right mind is browsing with IE these days?
Posted by: Nilu | March 24, 2005 1:28 AM
Sanketh, You point is valid but I don't agree that they are looking so ahead. With such rapid development we can't forsee anything more than 5 years from now. Who knows is WWW would exist in the same form after even 5 years from now ?
So their outcry is very short-sighted and biased. We are jealous of everone who rapidly grows. Microsoft faced the same wrath. Now it's Google's day.
But BTW, if you by-pass pop up blockers as non-code changers, Autolink does not change either. It just adds links. They don't tamper the existing ones.
Posted by: Lazy Geek | March 24, 2005 12:01 PM
hey geek,
can you do this in 'dummies' for me please! i hate not to understand! :(
cheers!
ramya
Posted by: ramya | March 24, 2005 6:34 PM
Lazy,
I totally agree that the Autolink feature is pretty cool... hell, I've made great use of it already...
But, I feel that you havent addressed the concerns put forth in the two articles(Scoble and Winer) you have linked to... they are talking from a web publisher/content owner perspective... and as much as I love autolink for what it is, I do seem to see some sense in these two articles (not all of it), though at times they border on being paranoid to the extent of being hallucinating...
Posted by: Maharajan | March 25, 2005 1:34 AM
Maharajan,
As you said they are paranoid about this whole stuff. But then I am just asking for some cool thinking here instead of getting wild at Google.
Again, I say this. As a web publisher I would love to have AD pop-ups to appear on my audience PC. But they develop Pop-UP blockers to enable trouble-free browsing for the readers. So as a web publisher can I yell at Google to have a pop-up blocker in their tool bar.
Given the above scenario, where do you strike a balance between audience and publishers. This autolinks is helping the audience reduce clicks. They aren't linking to something that's unheard of. They are linking to Amazon for books. So even if you are a novice user of internet, you would type the book name on a search engine and reach amazon. The autolink is just saving you those clicks. Where is the reason for being Paranoid ?
Posted by: Lazy Geek | March 25, 2005 2:43 AM
Certainly would save time. But I would rather use Firefox - Search box combo than IE with Google Toolbar.
And I find Google suggest far more better than vanilla google
Posted by: sat | March 25, 2005 3:24 AM
Its not paranoia as much as its simple old greed disguised as paranoia. The bottom line is, Google's plans for such autolinks enables them to earn money off the clicks on the links. But, the links not being part of the content of the original page, Google did not have to pay the owner of the content to have its links. And this is what is pissing people off.
Do the regular users care that Google is even doing such thing? Nope. They are busy being happy that Google is providing them such easy-to-use ways. So, how do you get them to listen? Crank up such plausible stories of paranoia and content manipulation, talk about civil liberties and how Google could link up the phone numbers and email addresses. Start talking of the new evil empire.
Alas, quite a few people are still gullible enough that these dope-writers have audiences far and wide. As my friend says, with all this development and advancement in technology, the only thing thats happening is increased fear in people. What a shame!
Posted by: Ramesh | March 26, 2005 1:39 AM