A new toolbar feature has landed Google in some hot water with webmasters, who say the search giant is "hijacking" 404 pages.

According to Seoker.com, a webmaster blog, the toolbar changes the standard 404 error page into a custom Google page with a Google search box and pre-populated data from the initial query.

Matt Cutts of Google responded to Seoker, saying that the Google page will only appear when the website doesn't have a customized 404 page. However, that fact is in dispute, according to a post at Mashable.

While Google's attempt to monetize error pages seems to have upset the webmaster world, it isn't a new idea. Domain registrar Network Solutions tried it in the past, and Microsoft, which has been battling Google left and right, customizes its own 404 pages through its Explorer browser. However, Google hasn't won any friends in the webmaster community with its latest toolbar because many webmasters use 404 pages to drive traffic to more lucrative pages.