Google Hijacking 404 Pages? > Easy fix

Easy fix

Such a complex and technical fix. I think we should go on and on about how terrible this is instead

The issue is that the website could have customized 404 pages to help direct traffic back to the site and the google toolbar is essentially hijacking their page which is certainly not cool

Exactly. My company site has custom 404 pages. A user mistypes or an old link is clicked, a nicely formatted 404 page results within our website design, along with a company site search box and other information.
Anyone who circumvents a visitor from seeing that is playing unfair, IMO, if not outright sneaky and illegal.
KM

Someone else suggested using a .htaccess file to redirect back to the home page. I then suggested redirecting to a valid page which will give a 200 response, but tell the user that their request could not be fulfilled.

reply to Raptor
No different than going on and on about changing your DNS servers when ISPs implement such tactics.