When the browser loads the page, it interrogates the linked page's status code. Hyperlinks with pages returning a 404 are color-coded red.
-- FloridaManatee, Oct 22 2003

Link Rover http://www.halfbake...m/idea/Link_20Rover
related idea for fixing the bad links proactively [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Hyperlink http://www.halfbake...0Web-Surfing_20Game
Would be helpful for my half-baked web game [jivetalkinrobot, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Funny 404 http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
Fake joke 404 [Letsbuildafort, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

This would screw with CSS. Maybe the background could be red.
-- ashibaka, Oct 22 2003


Or there could be a new CSS tag :
a:link
a:visited
a:dead

-- Detly, Oct 22 2003


Perhaps there is some way that the browser could check ahead and warn you before you click on the link?
-- spiraliii, Oct 22 2003


What a good idea spiraliii!
-- swamilad, Oct 23 2003


Further to ashibaka's comment, rather than changing link colors, you should have the cursor change to something appropriate (a skull and crossbones, say). Browsers are capable of checking links ahead of time, as some will load them in the background to speed up access.
-- DrCurry, Oct 23 2003


I posted one about link tidying recently, it is called "Link Rover"
-- krelnik, Oct 23 2003


Why not allow the webserver to check the links on the fly as an intermediate solution? I know it would increase load but surely it could be cached for 1 minute or something... On second thoughts...lets leave it in the browser... since the browser can cache it while checking it.
-- darkflib, Oct 23 2003


I am boning this for an efficency reason. The only way to tell if a link is live is to try to fetch its contents. So for every page that you visit, your browser is going to have to fetch the contents of that page and the contents of every page it is linked to, including advertisements.

So if you open up your friend's Flicker page, it is going to have to load every single picture that is thumbnailed on that page, plus every advert on the side.

This will bring the entire Internet to a crawl.
-- Galbinus_Caeli, Jun 21 2006



random, halfbakery