Google’s new “feature” you may not want

Google recently introduced a new “Page Annotations” feature in the Google iPhone app. This feature looks at the text on a webpage and turns certain words and phrases into clickable links, even if the site owner didn’t add them. Clicking these links opens a Google search for the topic in a pop-up window over the website.

Here's a quick example, taken from the website of the United Way:

On this news article Google has added a link to the word “resilient.”  Tapping that link opens a sliding window with some results for the word “Resilience” from Google's search results.  And in this case, the definition it’s showing front and center comes from an archive of the US Department of State website from the Obama administration.

The important point is the author didn't choose to make this word a link, and didn't choose what to link to.

And since these links are added in real time, by Google's algorithm, at their discretion, there’s no way to check what words on your pages might get linked, and to where.

To be clear, this is happening in the “Google” iPhone app, not the Chrome web browser, and so far, not on Android. However, I can’t help but wonder if it’s a trial run before expanding to those other platforms. You can read Google's announcement of this feature for more info.

Can I opt out of this?

Google is providing a way for site owners to opt out of these Annotations.  It’s a single choice site-wide, so you can’t keep the feature on some pages and not others.  You need to have access to your site’s Google Search Console, and be logged into that account.  Then visit and submit this form and Google claims they'll turn off Annotations on your site within 30 days.

If you have a Report Kitchen site that you wish to opt out, drop me a note and I’d be happy to take care of this for you.

Conclusion

I am, not surprisingly, very protective of the visitor experience of the websites we build and manage. Creating hyperlinks is literally the first and most fundamental feature of the World Wide Web, and the way I see it — if I wanted a word to be linked, it would be linked. While most of the Annotations I've seen Google add to pages are relatively innocuous, (a) there’s no way to know if Google might link someone to a source that’s either confusing or outright contrary to your point of view, and (b) it doesn’t matter. It’s your content and visitors assume everything they encounter on your website represents your point of view, including other sites you choose to link to.

At the very least Google should have made this feature opt-in instead of opt-out.