New Google Toolbar Feature

Recently Google released the beta of its version 5 toolbar. Some internet enthusiasts immediately picked up on a new feature that will take over a websites 404 error page and drop you on a Google search page. Apparently there was so much buzz within the community that Google decided they needed to respond to the criticism. Matt Cutt’s gave his views on the new toolbar feature along with some details to prevent the page hijacking as well as turn the new feature off.

I personally would prefer not to have any page on my website taken over by a tool bar and potentially driving traffic from my pages. Seems like an almost desperate move on Google’s part, especially after their criticism of Verisign and Rogers (a Canadian ISP) for very similar practices. What’s next…a “notakeovermypagesandstealmytraffic” tag for Googlebot?