

"The suspicion was more to do with who the guide was than the function of being guided." Smart Tags were like "a guide, and the guide always tells you what you're looking at, or to turn right instead of left," Purcell said. As a result, Microsoft quashed the feature for IE. The Internet community was up in arms because Microsoft proposed to link text on pages by default to MSN sites. The feature still works in Office: if you write a person's name in a Word document you can click an icon to call up the person's address or e-mail, for example.īut in 2001, with the release of Office XP, Microsoft added the feature to a beta version of Internet Explorer 6. Years ago, Microsoft created the tags to automatically link documents or content on a machine to a network, and retrieve data. In function, Google's AutoLink is similar to Microsoft's Smart Tags, but in design, it differs. "Google has great respect for copyright owners. Upon clicking the link, we make these modifications the way you'd like us to modify the page," Mayer said. But she said that AutoLink was designed to ensure people remain in control. She said the group didn't consider comparisons with Microsoft's pulled Smart Tags feature. Google's director of Web products, Marissa Mayer, said her team had a healthy debate about how the feature would work before it was "If I'm on Company A's Web site, and a third party is allowing me to direct me to Company B, there will be some controversy over who controls whose information," said Richard Purcell, former chief privacy officer at Microsoft, who's now CEO of Corporate Privacy Group.Ī representative said the company is reviewing Google's new toolbar technology and is in discussions with Google about it. Many Web publishers and e-commerce companies have filed suit against application makers like Claria, formerly Gator, and The argument is central to lawsuits in the adware industry.
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Does the consumer have the right to install software that can manipulate the appearance or delivery of Web pages? Or does the Web publisher have the ultimate say and control over how its content is displayed? The technology dredges up a long-simmering legal debate over who owns the desktop. They shouldn't get away with what Microsoft was unable to," Steve Rubel wrote on Wednesday on his Micropersuasion blog. It has nearly the same lock on consumers' share of mind.And millions use the Google Toolbar.

"Google is to the Web what Microsoft is to PCs-the operating system everyone uses to search. Microsoft took the same approach with its Smart Tags feature years ago and eventually pulled it because of trust and trademark concerns. Nevertheless, some critics charge that AutoLink takes the liberty of modifying Web pages to direct people the way Google sees fit. People can already choose between several map services, including Yahoo and MapQuest, and choices for book retailers may be added in the future, a company representative said on Friday. Google, the world's most widely used search engine, denied that the AutoLink feature is an attempt to control which destinations Web surfers visit.
