discussion, the thing that strikes me the most is how unfortunate and inaccurate the term “AutoLink” really is. The whole point is that the feature isn’t auto at all – it’s on-demand only. Automatic linking of content without user intervention – that would clearly be on the other (that is to say wrong) side of the line. That was the problem with Smart Tags, for sure. In that case the user didn’t actually have to do anything once it was configured the first time. AutoLinks, on the other hand, don’t do anything until the user specifically requests it to be done – just as is the case with online translation services or any of the other tools that are available for users to interpret stuff on the web.
I wonder if the conversation would have been different had Google chosen a more descriptive name for the feature?
