New Google app feature injects search links into third-party websites
In brief: Google has rolled out a new feature for its iOS app that essentially allows it to add its own links to third-party websites. Called ‘Page Annotations,’ it uses the company’s entity extraction smarts to detect notable names, places, and things mentioned on a webpage, highlights them, and turns them into links that load up more info from Google when tapped.
The idea, Google notes in its Web Search Forums, is to let users “quickly get additional context about people, places or things – without leaving the site they’re on.” When you tap one of the annotated terms, it opens an overlay window on top of the website showing a Google knowledge panel with more details pulled from the search engine’s database.
On the surface, it sounds like a handy way to get quick context while browsing. But there are those concerned about Google injecting its own links and content over the top of their websites. It’s not quite as egregious as some of the other anti-competitive practices Google has been accused of, but it’s another example of the search giant’s dominance over the web.
To be fair, Google is allowing website owners to opt out of the feature by filling out a form, though it notes that opt-outs can take up to 30 days to go into effect.
Just Spotted! Googles New Fake Links On Websites That Take You To A New Google Search!
JUST Saw This On A Search Engine Roundtable Article. It Highlights The Text And Then A New SERP Pops Up Inside The Page.
This Along With Other Moves Keeps Making Me Think That They Are Doing… pic.twitter.com/x9n6N57Pwn
– Anthony Higman (@AnthonyHigman) November 27, 2024
The move comes at a sensitive time for Google, which is facing intensifying antitrust scrutiny and calls to have its search monopoly reined in. Just recently, the US Department of Justice suggested forcing it to sell off Chrome as a potential remedy for its allegedly anti-competitive behavior.
It’s worth mentioning that in its initial description of the new feature, Google vaguely states that clicking the annotated links directs users to its own search results page for that entity. However, it later clarified to the Search Engine Roundtable that the annotations actually open an “app tray” overlay on the same third-party webpage – without navigating the user away from the original site. If the user wants to return to the third-party content, they can simply close the app tray overlay.
The underpinning technology behind Page Annotations seems similar to a new ad format Google launched earlier this year that turns webpage text into sponsored links leading to Google searches.
