Earlier today, as a response to the controversy that has been brewing over Google's decision to create custom 404 error pages, we asked Mashable readers to weigh in on whether or not they felt that Google was wrong to "hijack" the server error pages. Overwhelmingly, the readers responded that they felt the practice was completely wrong of Google to pursue.

The comments on the poll, while not exhaustive, didn't do much to illuminate your reasons for picking as you did. Chris Thomson weighed in on the question:

I think if they split the revenue from AdWords, that'd be okay. Seriously though, everyone should change their 404 page. When I hosted with 1and1, their default error page was a 1and1-branded 404 page, equipped with THEIR ads, that THEY got paid for. You could, of course, change this. It's similar with this, because Google doesn't share the ad revenue with the site owner, and yet, you could decide to NOT have Google redirect your site (make a custom 404 page).

And Max Roeleveld continued that thought:

Exactly. Even then, it's not like Google is visiting your server and making all kinds of changes there; this only works for people that have the toolbar installed, and have chosen not to disable the feature. From a user standpoint, Google's 404 is an improvement over the standard 404 you get with Apache, and only as a last resort, search is offered. No, I don't think Google is Wrong. If web masters don't like this behaviour, they should do their job and provide some 404 that benefits visitors.

Those that are up in arms over this controversy haven't loudly spoken as to why it is this upsets them so much, and as such, I think that there must be a massive misunderstanding as to what exactly is going on here. When you change your 404 page to be custom on your server, you can use it to redirect to whatever content you choose, and you can monetize it how you like. If you leave it as a standard 404 that the server comes with, obviously you don't really care what happens to that 404 traffic (or otherwise you'd be doing something about it).

For Google to essentially take that unwanted traffic and try to do something with it for folks that have their custom software installed in their browser isn't the height of evil. It's just being smart, and perhaps a bit helpful.