h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The translation engine at [URL removed by moderator] is called Babelfish, after a well-known if fictional aquatic creature. Near the bottom of the translation page, there is a link to "The Original Story of the Babelfish", which sends the surfer to a page at the old site, www.h2g2.com/a172685 (i believe). The automatic referrer that sends visitors accessing the old site here sends a surfer to a supposedly equivalent page on this site, telling what ought to be the story of the Babel fish. What it really tells the surfer is that the page has been replaced by this site. There is nothing on this site that tells the story of the Babel fish, and I'd like to call your collective attention to this. I think it may be causing this site to lose a significant source for potential researchers.

That's an old version of the translation page - the latest one doesn't have this link, as far as I can see.

As we are now part of the BBC we can't have a commercial deal like this in place, so although you're right that we're missing potential hits, the link shouldn't be there in the first place. The fact that Altavista continue to allow meaningless links to appear on their site is their problem - we've asked them to remove it quite a few times!

Mark