You may have heard about something Google's toolbar has started doing lately that could alter the presentation of your webpages. It's called AutoLink, and it turns some text in web pages into links--for example, addresses, book ISBN numbers, etc. Many arguments, both for an against are being made regarding this feature. There are also two petitions opposing AutoLink hosted at PetitionsOnline.com. [Update: Having discovered that AutoLink must be activated by the user on a page-by-page basis, I no longer have any objection to this feature.]

The first requests that webmasters be able to opt out of this feature by adding some hidden code to their web pages. I didn't think that a sufficient remedy, and wrote another which requests that the links be moved out of the webpage and into the toolbar unless the web page opts in. Since writing it, I've thought of one more thing they could do that I would find acceptable: move the links to the toolbar unless the webmaster opts in, as requested, and also let the user on a page-by-page basis, ie., as they are viewing a webpage, click a button that displays the links within the webpage. Just don't show the links in the page upon arrival unless the webmaster has opted in.

If you agree with either or both of these petitions, please add your name to them.