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Can Google Redirect Your Customers to Another's Website? - By Michael Stillman The ISBN number near the bottom of this Barnes & Noble listing is highlighted by Google to show it is a link. By Michael Stillman It is every bookseller's worst nightmare. You post a book for sale, on a bookselling website, or maybe even your own site. However, somewhere along the way, some insidious software redirects your customers to another site where someone else makes the sale. In an era where computers get hijacked by spyware, adware, and various pop-up windows, these nightmares are no longer beyond the pale. Such software can readily be developed and stuck on your customers' computers by unscrupulous merchants or promoters. But could it be done by Google, the epitome of online ethical behavior? A few years ago, a program to convert copy on a website to links to an advertiser was apparently developed by Microsoft. The idea was that the software would look for terms, for example, "Rolex watches," on the site. If they showed up, the words "Rolex watches" would become a link to an advertiser who was selling them. While that might sound harmless, it becomes downright insidious when the term "Rolex watches" appears on Jeweler 1's website, but the link redirects you to Jeweler 2's page. Jeweler 1 invests the advertising and promotional dollars to bring buyers to his site, then Jeweler 2 steals the customer. Not having to invest in advertising, Jeweler 2 may even undercut Jeweler 1's price. It is downright sinister. When rumors came out that Microsoft planned to add such a feature to their software, the response was ferocious. Microsoft doesn't carry the friendliest of reputations for the manner in which it competes. Some people believe the company shows few restraints when it comes to finding ways to monopolize their business. Nevertheless, if they ever had any thoughts of adding such a program to their software, they quickly backed down. Microsoft may be the quintessential 800-pound gorilla, but not even they were prepared to deal with the level of ire this idea generated. So it is perhaps a surprise to see a piece of this concept sneak in the back door through Google, the friendly giant. The concept has not appeared in such a bludgeoning form as people imagined would happen with Microsoft. It has come in unobtrusively, in a relatively insignificant, totally voluntary, and seemingly harmless way with Google. However, it could be the tip of an iceberg. Whether it ever becomes more than what it is now, a small tip which will have little impact on your business, or someday reveals itself to be the hidden iceberg that can sink your business, is impossible to tell. However, it is something worth being aware of in its infancy, because no one can tell for sure how much this infant might grow.
Can Google Redirect Your Customers to Another's Website? - By Michael Stillman The ISBN link shown on the Barnes and Noble site leads to a listing on ... Amazon! As we said, Google is not sneaking this feature in involuntarily, as some feared Microsoft would do. It works only for those who want it. First, you have to download and install the Google toolbar on your computer, a totally voluntary action. Listings cannot become links for you if you do not have the Google toolbar installed. If you do, you will then have an option called "AutoLink." AutoLink enables you to turn several things into links: street addresses, motor vehicle VIN numbers, and book ISBN numbers. We should point out that Google cannot turn book titles into links, at least not yet. It can only convert ISBN numbers to links. Next, you get to decide whether you even want to use this feature. It is totally voluntary. You can have the Google toolbar but still leave AutoLink disabled. If you don't use it, Google will never convert ISBN numbers it finds on websites to links. If you do activate this feature, Google will enable ISBN numbers on websites to become links. Whereto, you might ask. The default answer is a name well known to us all: Amazon! If AutoLink is activated, ISBN numbers on others' websites, perhaps your own, become links to for sale listings on Amazon. Surely this is not what you intended, but Google enables your customer to convert ISBN numbers on your website to links to Amazon listings. The customer can choose to change those ISBN links to links to four sites other than Amazon if they prefer. They can link to the relatively harmless WorldCat library listings, Barnes and Noble, Booksense, or their own Froogle. If the customer changes the default from Amazon to, say, WorldCat, then the ISBN numbers on your site will become links to WorldCat instead of Amazon. My guess is that most people will leave the setting on Amazon, but that is only my guess. Now, if the ISBN number in your listing is already a link, AutoLink will not override it. That link will still redirect the visitor to the intended page. AutoLink will only convert ISBN numbers that are plain text, not links already, to links to Amazon or another chosen site. So let's go to a couple of Amazon's competitors to see what happens. First I went to Abebooks, which recently added ISBN numbers to their listings as part of a group of changes that have not entirely pleased all of their booksellers. AutoLink might have caused those booksellers even more consternation, since those ISBN numbers are now displayed right next to the titles in Abe listings. However, the Abe sellers were saved by the fact that the ISBN numbers on Abe are also links to the detailed descriptions. As noted above, AutoLink does not override existing links. Clicking on the Abe ISBN's takes you to the Abe details, not Amazon. However, when I looked up "Tom Sawyer," I found one dealer who also included the ISBN number in the basic description. Since this ISBN was not a link to the detailed description, Google highlighted it for me, and when I clicked the ISBN number, it took me to Amazon's site. The dealer wanted $1 for his copy, while Amazon offered copies as low as $.01.
Can Google Redirect Your Customers to Another's Website? - By Michael Stillman none However, when you click to the detailed description on Abe, the ISBN number is listed again, and this time, it is not a link. Google told me that it had found an ISBN, but for whatever reason, it did not convert it to an Amazon link. I think it was supposed to, and this failure was a bug in the system, rather than deference to Abe sellers. I use an Apple computer with the Firefox browser. The Google toolbar has only recently been made available for these, so failure to convert these ISBN's to Amazon links probably was an error. Alibris uses ISBN numbers in many of their listings, and they are not meant to be links. For whatever reason, AutoLink found some of them but not others for me. The ones it did find, AutoLink converted to Amazon links. In several cases, these links informed me that books that cost $2.95 on Alibris could be had for $.01 on Amazon, or in one case, Amazon wanted $1.17 vs. $2.95 for Alibris. In perhaps the ultimate insult, I went to the Barnes and Noble site. As the images accompanying this article show, they were asking $3.99 while Amazon was offering a used copy for a penny. Of course, I could switch my default supplier to Barnes and Noble and probably play the same trick on Amazon. So we have seen the face of progress, and while much of it is beautiful, we can also see a darker side. This is a service that only works for people who want it. Google does not force it upon you. In most cases, it is a harmless and helpful service. For example, if you are reading a review of a book which includes an ISBN, converting that number to a link to buy the book is a handy feature. Some of the other AutoLink features, such as the ability to convert addresses to a location on a map, are very useful benefits for which it's hard to imagine any downside. However, I am still troubled by a program that can convert one bookseller's listings into promotions for another, likely a bigger and more powerful competitor. Despite the undoubted innocence of intentions, and the benefits this service provides, there is something terribly unfair about converting one bookseller's work into advertising for another. As it stands right now, I don't like it.

Can Google Redirect Your Customers to Another's Website?

- By Michael Stillman

The ISBN number near the bottom of this Barnes & Noble listing is highlighted by Google to show it is a link.

By Michael Stillman

It is every bookseller's worst nightmare. You post a book for sale, on a bookselling website, or maybe even your own site. However, somewhere along the way, some insidious software redirects your customers to another site where someone else makes the sale. In an era where computers get hijacked by spyware, adware, and various pop-up windows, these nightmares are no longer beyond the pale. Such software can readily be developed and stuck on your customers' computers by unscrupulous merchants or promoters. But could it be done by Google, the epitome of online ethical behavior?

A few years ago, a program to convert copy on a website to links to an advertiser was apparently developed by Microsoft. The idea was that the software would look for terms, for example, "Rolex watches," on the site. If they showed up, the words "Rolex watches" would become a link to an advertiser who was selling them. While that might sound harmless, it becomes downright insidious when the term "Rolex watches" appears on Jeweler 1's website, but the link redirects you to Jeweler 2's page. Jeweler 1 invests the advertising and promotional dollars to bring buyers to his site, then Jeweler 2 steals the customer. Not having to invest in advertising, Jeweler 2 may even undercut Jeweler 1's price. It is downright sinister.

When rumors came out that Microsoft planned to add such a feature to their software, the response was ferocious. Microsoft doesn't carry the friendliest of reputations for the manner in which it competes. Some people believe the company shows few restraints when it comes to finding ways to monopolize their business. Nevertheless, if they ever had any thoughts of adding such a program to their software, they quickly backed down. Microsoft may be the quintessential 800-pound gorilla, but not even they were prepared to deal with the level of ire this idea generated.

So it is perhaps a surprise to see a piece of this concept sneak in the back door through Google, the friendly giant. The concept has not appeared in such a bludgeoning form as people imagined would happen with Microsoft. It has come in unobtrusively, in a relatively insignificant, totally voluntary, and seemingly harmless way with Google. However, it could be the tip of an iceberg. Whether it ever becomes more than what it is now, a small tip which will have little impact on your business, or someday reveals itself to be the hidden iceberg that can sink your business, is impossible to tell. However, it is something worth being aware of in its infancy, because no one can tell for sure how much this infant might grow.

Can Google Redirect Your Customers to Another's Website?

- By Michael Stillman

The ISBN link shown on the Barnes and Noble site leads to a listing on ... Amazon!

As we said, Google is not sneaking this feature in involuntarily, as some feared Microsoft would do. It works only for those who want it. First, you have to download and install the Google toolbar on your computer, a totally voluntary action. Listings cannot become links for you if you do not have the Google toolbar installed. If you do, you will then have an option called "AutoLink." AutoLink enables you to turn several things into links: street addresses, motor vehicle VIN numbers, and book ISBN numbers. We should point out that Google cannot turn book titles into links, at least not yet. It can only convert ISBN numbers to links.

Next, you get to decide whether you even want to use this feature. It is totally voluntary. You can have the Google toolbar but still leave AutoLink disabled. If you don't use it, Google will never convert ISBN numbers it finds on websites to links. If you do activate this feature, Google will enable ISBN numbers on websites to become links. Whereto, you might ask. The default answer is a name well known to us all: Amazon! If AutoLink is activated, ISBN numbers on others' websites, perhaps your own, become links to for sale listings on Amazon. Surely this is not what you intended, but Google enables your customer to convert ISBN numbers on your website to links to Amazon listings.

The customer can choose to change those ISBN links to links to four sites other than Amazon if they prefer. They can link to the relatively harmless WorldCat library listings, Barnes and Noble, Booksense, or their own Froogle. If the customer changes the default from Amazon to, say, WorldCat, then the ISBN numbers on your site will become links to WorldCat instead of Amazon. My guess is that most people will leave the setting on Amazon, but that is only my guess.

Now, if the ISBN number in your listing is already a link, AutoLink will not override it. That link will still redirect the visitor to the intended page. AutoLink will only convert ISBN numbers that are plain text, not links already, to links to Amazon or another chosen site.

So let's go to a couple of Amazon's competitors to see what happens. First I went to Abebooks, which recently added ISBN numbers to their listings as part of a group of changes that have not entirely pleased all of their booksellers. AutoLink might have caused those booksellers even more consternation, since those ISBN numbers are now displayed right next to the titles in Abe listings. However, the Abe sellers were saved by the fact that the ISBN numbers on Abe are also links to the detailed descriptions. As noted above, AutoLink does not override existing links. Clicking on the Abe ISBN's takes you to the Abe details, not Amazon. However, when I looked up "Tom Sawyer," I found one dealer who also included the ISBN number in the basic description. Since this ISBN was not a link to the detailed description, Google highlighted it for me, and when I clicked the ISBN number, it took me to Amazon's site. The dealer wanted $1 for his copy, while Amazon offered copies as low as $.01.

Can Google Redirect Your Customers to Another's Website?

- By Michael Stillman

none

However, when you click to the detailed description on Abe, the ISBN number is listed again, and this time, it is not a link. Google told me that it had found an ISBN, but for whatever reason, it did not convert it to an Amazon link. I think it was supposed to, and this failure was a bug in the system, rather than deference to Abe sellers. I use an Apple computer with the Firefox browser. The Google toolbar has only recently been made available for these, so failure to convert these ISBN's to Amazon links probably was an error.

Alibris uses ISBN numbers in many of their listings, and they are not meant to be links. For whatever reason, AutoLink found some of them but not others for me. The ones it did find, AutoLink converted to Amazon links. In several cases, these links informed me that books that cost $2.95 on Alibris could be had for $.01 on Amazon, or in one case, Amazon wanted $1.17 vs. $2.95 for Alibris.

In perhaps the ultimate insult, I went to the Barnes and Noble site. As the images accompanying this article show, they were asking $3.99 while Amazon was offering a used copy for a penny. Of course, I could switch my default supplier to Barnes and Noble and probably play the same trick on Amazon.

So we have seen the face of progress, and while much of it is beautiful, we can also see a darker side. This is a service that only works for people who want it. Google does not force it upon you. In most cases, it is a harmless and helpful service. For example, if you are reading a review of a book which includes an ISBN, converting that number to a link to buy the book is a handy feature. Some of the other AutoLink features, such as the ability to convert addresses to a location on a map, are very useful benefits for which it's hard to imagine any downside. However, I am still troubled by a program that can convert one bookseller's listings into promotions for another, likely a bigger and more powerful competitor. Despite the undoubted innocence of intentions, and the benefits this service provides, there is something terribly unfair about converting one bookseller's work into advertising for another. As it stands right now, I don't like it.