[Ruby] link_to or button_to external url

[Neil Moomey]

I can't seem to designate an external url with link_to or button_to

<%= link_to :Google, :action => "http://www.google" %>
give me:
http://localhost:3004/pfd_applicants/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google

I've read up and can't find why it's doing this.  The options
available are :anchor, :only_path, :trailing_slash, :host, and
:protocol but none of them seem to help.

I have rails 1.16 and ruby 1.8

Neil