More whingeing about AutoLink...

The WebProNews forum has joined the "debate" on Google's AutoLink toolbar feature and it's much in the same negative tones as discussed here in an earlier post.

Forum users are a bit like lemmings: one guy starts a tread and everyone else starts running for the clifftops... not so much of a debate then.

One user ("cfortune") suggested to googlebomb Google, using "search nazis" as a search term... "search n***s", I'll have you know! Language, fellas!

Another suggested we all leave Google to die, since it's so incapable of looking after its "customers" (sic). Friend, the customers are the searchers, not site owners or marketers. The AutoLink feature is intended for them, not you.

There is a little support for the feature, even in this hostile forum. One user pointed out correctly that AutoLink is in fact far from auto. The user has to choose to deploy the right toolbar version and needs to click on the AutoLink button to see if (and only if) there are additional links available. Hardly two decisions most users will take "unconsciously".

Another made the following observation: when popup blockers started to effectively suppress these annoying pops form appearing, did the pop suppliers file a class action suit for lost revenue against, amongst others, Google? They didn't. Popup blockers are generally perceived as user experience enhancing, AutoLink is likely to do the same.

And no, it might not improve things for site owners but AutoLink wasn't intended for that group in the first place.