now this is pretty alarming... I don't have google toolbar installed on any of my machines... but I think I'm going to have to install it just to test if my 404s are still working on various sites of mine...
google might be stealing my traffic
Quote:
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This morning I installed the Google Toolbar beta version on one of my computers and my oh my - there is something that can have huge impact to many webmasters. Google grabs the 404 error code returned to the web browser in certain situations and instead of displaying the 404 error page of the website you are on, it creates a custom 404 error page - made by Google. The “new” 404 error page ‘conveniently’ includes a Google search box and if used by a visitor will drive the visitor away from your website. Even worse - the search box is pre-populated with data from the initial URL query on your website. Imagine a situation where kind of sensitive data is send to Google that way. Even normal data would make it to Google that way and we all know what Google does with data. For me as a webmaster this is a major intrusion into my own intellectual property. My normal 404 error page is effectively disabled by the Google Toolbar. This is bad.
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source:
Seoker.com » Google hijacking 404 error pages
and an update:
Seoker.com » Update on the Google 404 Page Hijack