It only replaces error pages that are not the server default (for example, a default server error page - something thats not in the least bit useful to the average user)

If a site has a 404 page or manages 404 entries, Google does not override the behavior. It only overrides default (not managed) 404 behavior.

What I would expect from an installed toolbar. Sorry, in this case, not evil behavior.

Still Shelley - that is not right imo.

Look at the screenshots in a post I wrote on this topic. Frankly, I much prefer the Google approach.

I would expect a search engine toolbar to provide just this kind of behavior. Now, if it overrode custom 404 error pages, I would be peeved. But the only cases I found that Google provided the search page (and only if you had the toolbar installed) is the one example site given in the original post, and the one I found that provided no error handling. Most sites manage 404 errors. Well, correctly that is. For instance, this site does, and Google's toolbar didn't override the custom error page.

We wrote about this specifically on the Webmaster Central blog a couple months ago:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/fyi-on-google-toolbars-latest-features.html
so this isn't something new or that just happened.

Interesting Matt

And from the blog post, because I know some people won't read it:
"404 errors with default error pages
When a visitor tries to reach your content with an invalid URL and your server returns a short, default error message (less than 512 bytes), the Toolbar will suggest an alternate URL to the visitor. If this is a general problem in your website, you will see these URLs also listed in the crawl errors section of your Webmaster Tools account.

If you choose to set up a custom error page, make sure it returns result code 404. The content of the 404 page can help your visitors to understand that they tried to reach a missing page and provides suggestions regarding how to find the content they were looking for. When a site displays a custom error page the Toolbar will no longer provide suggestions for that site. You can check the behavior of the Toolbar by visiting an invalid URL on your site with the Google Toolbar installed."

I don't see a problem with a helpful toolbar option for unmanaged 404s. While I have criticized Google for the way it handles site searches, at least the user has an option of trying one.

Googlers, maybe it would be helpful to offer a default preset site search for unmanaged 404 pages in a future revision of the toolbar.

Just now i checked, it is not affecting the custom 404 page.

Pratheep

In some server error page regardless whether it's 404, 401 etc, the server will include a message which will advise user to communicate or notify the system admin. In this case I think it's not right for anybody to replace the error page with something else unless similar information mention within.

Azlan
AzlanHussain.com
Online Business with a kampung boy

I don't know if some people here actually realise that Google potentially earns money from this. Sure it's helpful to the user, but if that same user clicks an advert on the Google search, Google makes money - and they've just made it off the back of your website, to me that's evil especially if they don't share the revenue with the domain owner.

the "do no evil" company apparently is openly doing evil - no surprise. they have to please the stockholders - capatalism reigns supreem or is it greed?????