Cory's IT Conversations debate on Google Autolinks

Cory Doctorow 5:21 pm Sat Mar 19, 2005

Last week, I did a phone interview with Denise Howell about the Google Autolinks "controversy," along with Robert Scoble and Marty Schwimmer from the Trademark Blog, for Denise Howell's new IT Conversations Internet radio show, "Sound Policy." The one-hour debate was quite lively — you can download or stream it and see for yourself.

But those who have been watching the Web long enough to remember see a resemblance between AutoLink and Microsoft's Smart Tags feature, an unpopular link-adding "enhancement" to Internet Explorer that never made it out of the starting gate. Many wonder too whether AutoLink demonstrates a shift in Google's "don't be evil" approach toward making search profitable. Does AutoLink do enough to make it clear to users which links were put there by the Web page author and which were added? Could AutoLink or something like it alter the meaning and intent of the original page? Don't Web authors have the right to have their work distributed as written? Don't Web users have the right to view material in their browser however they'd like, and can't developers make tools that help this process?

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