Pesky floating links thing settles down

Still in Beta ¶ 

For those that have it, Google's awkward "Auto add links to Search" tool now has a name, and a place to live that is not floating in front of the editing window. (Previously it had several other names that were not so nice.) ¶ 

It has joined "Insert Google Search widget" on the new "Insert widget and AI-powered enhancements" menu in the editor.

The multicolor Google logo is hard to miss on the otherwise hipster-greyscale toolbar that Google introduced in 2020. 

Before 2020, spot color was a useful part of the user interface. Dogfood for we but not for thee, eh Google?

Both of these options create links to Google Search pages, not to pages that Google Search finds.

Today, some blogs still do not have the auto links command in the menu, even in Blogger in Draft.

Auto links

"Auto add links to Search" will go through your entire blog post and add links to Google Search with search terms that its AI considers to be especially...something or other.

(My links are bespoke, not generated.)

It's the only tool whose operation is unconstrained by selection or insertion point, which feels kind of out-of-control.

Some have complained that this feature adds hyperlinks to quotes, wrongly implying that the quoted source is the source of the link. (Suggestion: Strip away the link part, or add a dignified "hyperlink added" note, analogous to the customary "emphasis added," at the end of the quote.)

The Li'l Pencil Gets a Home

But the biggest complaint about this feature has been that, as a floating pencil icon, it would sometimes block access to the editor, and in any case was a kind of finger magnet that people would tap unintentionally.

It is certainly better behaved now.

Search widget

Unlike auto link, "Insert Google search link" adds a single compact graphic (selected by Blogger) to a search link specified by the user, at a single location selected by the user:

It's supposed to show a picture, but apparently Google has never heard of the capital of Japan. Try a famous person.

Auto link by contrast operates on the entire blog post and uses AI to decide where the links will go and to what search terms they will link.

Still not ready?

Not every blog has the automatic tool, suggesting its still officially a beta feature. This blog, for instance, only has the search widget on that menu.

But the menu approach fixes the intrusive floaty thing. I think we'll all get these eventually.

I'm not in love with either of these new tools. They feel ordered up by Google Corporate: "Let's see who can randomly put some AI into their product."

But every feature has its fans, and if you are one, go to town!

The new icon for robo link is a tiny magic wand, though something about it wants to be a magnet when I look at it.

Maybe its the tiny positive-polarity signs.