However as a user I’m royally pissed off because I can’t turn this functionality off and I don’t want it. The only reason I have toolbar installed are PR and favorites.

This just puts Google in the same bunch as Zango and other internet page-hijacking scum… They must be really distressed over their stock price to try things like this…

This sounds like a good innovation though.

Does the Toolbar send 404 data back to Google to help with indexing? Does it send page visit data to Google to help with indexing too?

Wow – I can’t believe how many people talk trash to you for no reason on your site!

MWA, again your name calling and childish rhetoric are not becoming of you and make you look as foolish as your guess work on why I no longer post to IHY. Incredibill is only a legend in your mind and his.

The reason you can’t be bothered to read what I said is because you know it’s right

LOL! Perhaps (highly unlikely though) you are “right”, I’ll never know though as I wont read it

Again, Dave…I wasn’t complaining. Like I said, I find it amusing as I always do…although eventually, as I’m getting with you, I get bored with it. Call me what you want…your opinion doesn’t change the reality of the situation. All it does is clouds it a bit.

The reason you can’t be bothered to read what I said is because you know it’s right. You can’t handle logic when it disagrees with whatever opinion you have, so you throw out stock answers. It is what it is.

…I was not complaining..

Matter of opinion but when you accuse others of complaining and promptly complain, moan & bitch about it in subsequent posts, you become a hypocrite.

MWA, sorry, that as far as I got as I’m not the slightest bit interested in your long unread rant. stick with your domain parking complaint, at least that makes some sense, although you offer NO solutions other that “make a rule” LOL!

BTW, getting personal and name calling is not very becoming for you. Also, you don’t have not the slightest idea why I don’t post at IHY anymore and your precious “incrediBills” words to *ME* (hint) have zip to do with it. But, keep guessing as you always do

Semantics. Let me give you a hint, there was NOT turning, only quoting.

No, “semantics” is your stock answer that you give when someone explains to you why whatever bonehead thing that comes out of your mouth is stupid. It’s also the reason why you got pissy over at IHY after Bill made you his personal bitch and took what passes for your ball. But if you want to throw that stock phrase out, go ahead.

You quoted me completely out of context to suit your own needs, but just so that it’s abundantly clear even to someone as towheaded as you, let me state it bluntly: I was not complaining about webmasters and SEOs making idiotic and asinine remarks about this policy. To be perfectly honest, I find it and found it amusing, much as I do every single time this happens in the web design industry, and to take it a step further the IT industry. Large company announces something relatively trivial that affects a small portion of people; geek community misreads, distorts, and blows it way out of proportion; comments that could only come from people making tangental leaps best reserved for the programming on The Space Channel ensue. Normally, you’re on the other side of the equation but for some reason you’ve decided to participate in the idiot charade for reasons known only to you.

In other words, not complaining, commenting on something I find funny. I’m hoping Google does more things like this at least every 3-4 months just so webmasters can bitch, moan and complain like whining schoolchildren because they didn’t see it coming. Bring on the stupidity!

That’s not “semantics”, Dave. Like I said before, and like I’ll say again, Johnny…can’t…read. Don’t twist my words around until you understand the full meaning behind them (in this case, you don’t).

But don’t worry, you just don’t ‘get it’ going by your reply to Alan and others.

No, I disagree with the bizarre and illogical ranting that most people have used here. The only one who has brought ANYTHING to the table to support the point of view was Alan, and as stated before, his example was a badly coded piece of work that Google would actually be doing any webmaster that used it a favor by summarily replacing it.

The real hypocrisy in the equation here is in the stance that everyone else seems to be taking. Google has put something in place that primarily benefits the small-scale webmaster, the one who may not even know what a custom 404 is, never mind how to implement one and be able to provide a search alternative. It also positively impacts webmasters who, for whatever reason, cannot implement a custom 404 (e.g. those on free hosts or on low-budget paid hosts). I believe they call this person “the little guy”…you know, the one big corporations screw over all the time. This actually helps those people. Anyone who can sit here and say with a straight face that the number of people with a custom 404 that is less than 512 bytes (assuming there is anyone in that class of people that has a 404 page that is in any way useful and less than 512 bytes in the first place) is greater than the number of webmasters who cannot implement a custom 404 in the first place needs to put the crash helmet on before they suffer any more brain damage.

Feel free to reply, Dave. Hurry up though…I’m making some popcorn and whatever entertainment you’re going to provide next would really go well with it.