What Traffic Google Giveth, AutoLink Taketh

My iMediaConnection column this month is on the Google Autolink controversy. In short, I think it's time for Google's advertisers to express any concerns they may have about the new Toolbar feature...

In late 2000 Google introduced two innovative services that revolutionized the web. The first, Google AdWords, was a breakthrough advertising paradigm that enabled thousands of online marketers to attract more traffic to their websites. The other, the Google Toolbar, helped millions of users search the web more efficiently. But last month the company added a new feature to the latter, called AutoLink, which threatens to negate some of the benefits of the former by siphoning traffic away from sites without their permission ... unless advertisers do something to stop them.