Comments on: Google’s Custom 404 Page Widget – Another Winner by Google

By: Delusional Cubs Fan

Delusional Cubs Fan — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:03:52 +0000

I think it’s great that they’re developing this. I’ll keep my custom page for now but I can see using this feature down the line.

By: E C Dumchus

E C Dumchus — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:46:07 +0000

I like the idea of tracking the 404 pages and using a redirect for frequently used wrong URLs; I had not considered that before. Thanks JohnMu

By: shawal

shawal — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:12:09 +0000

Google's engineer are genius.... Always thinking of new things to do with the net to control the net. shawals last blog post..ViralBlogAds Pre-Launch Contest

By: Normal Joe

Normal Joe — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:39:31 +0000

Look like it could be useful, in the future...as it stands now, not so much. My buddy ben over at benjaminpatton.com did a post about custom 404 pages, his was pretty slick. I don't know if he is using google with it or not though. Normal Joes last blog post..IMwithJoe.com Monthly Update

By: Tony Chung

Tony Chung — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:20:45 +0000

I don’t think people naturally “go” to the 404 page. They kind of wind up there by accident. For my site I hacked my 404 page to load the location query string into a search box, perform a search, then display the page. I think this is what Google tries to do as well. The difference is that if certain pages aren’t indexed by Google they won’t appear.

My search box fails if the search term isn’t in my database (which is a problem when combining legacy and database-driven sites). All the more reason to move it all into the db.

By: Ryan McLean

Ryan McLean — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:10:01 +0000

This sounds really cool. I like the idea of a search box on a 404 page. Do you really think this is worth the effort?
Do many people even go to the 404 pages?

By: JohnMu

JohnMu — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:02:30 +0000

Just a quick note on the suggestions: While we try to provide suggestions where possible, sometimes we just don’t know of any similarly names URLs — for example if you test your 404 page with http://example.com/missing-page or any other made-up term which doesn’t match the rest of your site, we’ll have trouble finding anything matching.

A great way to keep record of these 404s is to track them with Google Analytics (maybe you’re already using it for the rest of your site?): http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=86927 . If you notice that users are always hitting a few wrong URLs, set up a redirect and send them to the right ones.

JohnMus last blog post..Seeing nofollow links in Google Chrome

By: John Cow

John Cow — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:46:43 +0000

I agree, but it looks promising.

By: John Cow

John Cow — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:46:03 +0000

No that is pretty much exactly what I wanted to say. It provides alternatives for the urls that are not correct. So if there is a URL that is NOT correct, google will provide an alternative for it.

By: Andre Thomas

Andre Thomas — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:46:22 +0000

I think it will be a great tool when it's complete. But for now, I'll stick to my already custom page instead, which by the way, already has a search box on it. I have to admit: the suggestion of similar pages is indeed interesting! Andre Thomass last blog post..The True Secret To Big Traffic

By: Contest Live

Contest Live — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:00:28 +0000

Looks like it could be a good idea, but after trying it out on my site, it just added a search bar, which it already has.

Possibilities are good, however at this time I would simply edit the 404 manually.

By: pinoyconsole

pinoyconsole — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 05:14:21 +0000

It’s been a long time since my visit to Google webmaster, I never know what’s going on now to my site. Thanks for the reminder, I will check mine now

By: Jarret

Jarret — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:30:36 +0000

“In addition, this widget tries to provide your reader with alternatives for URLs that aren’t correct.”

Aren’t correct? What kind of use would that be?

“At this time, it won’t provide alternative URL suggestions, closest match suggestions, or sitemap suggestions.”

So which one is it then? Does it provide alternative suggestions or not?

Looking at it right now inside of Webmaster Tools and it says that it tries to provide them. Might want to double check your post before you hit publish.

By: Helping make money online

Helping make money online — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Google’s Custom 404 Page Widget – Another Winner by GooglePosted: 06 Sep 2008 10:35 PM CDT