I'm not sure if it something that is a big problem with good bandwidth, but I have many occasions where I want to touch a link on my Smartphone and, just as I press the screen, the page downloads some other picture or whatnot and everything shifts to somewhere else. This means that I sometimes get directed to some other link instead.
So, it would be useful if a new link position is not activated for a fraction of a second after it appears.-- Ling, Mar 26 2014 I've that problem, mostly with pages that are chock full of Javascript and Flash objects, and was thinking the display engine could draw the page in all directions from cursor/mouse position.-- FlyingToaster, Mar 26 2014 If this happens just as you press the screen, maybe it is on purpose to trick you into visiting preferred link. If I had a website I would try to make it so just about anything one did brought viewers to a page full of expensively purchased ads.-- bungston, Mar 26 2014 Remind me never to visit www.bungston.com
Yes, it certainly could be designed that a screen press actually causes the page to rearrange itself, all the time making it look like it simply downloaded and inserted another jpg or 2.
But in my case, I swear the smartphone knows when my finger is a fraction of an inch from the screen, and manages to shift things within that short time. Sometimes I can hit "back" and wait for the complete page to download again. Sometimes "back" doesn't work, particularly with online banking. So I need to find another link and be very careful to wait for the whole page to settle down.-- Ling, Mar 26 2014 [ling] That's a symptom of very poor web authoring.
As for the idea, way to much opportunity for abuse, like redirecting to a different link(and putting in that pause) over and over when you try to leave a page.-- Voice, Mar 29 2014 If HTML link delays are outlawed, only outlaws will have HTML link delays. . . . . : )-- popbottle, Mar 29 2014 Hmmm... but if it is implemented by the HTML reader, every time the screen layout is changed by the reader, there is a 0.5s delay before making links active again. I suppose that could be abused, but then the page would be continuously jumping about, depending on the bandwidth, which would make the information on the page pretty useless (no change there, then, for advertising!).-- Ling, Mar 30 2014 [Ling], it's trivial to change where a link is or looks like it is whilst displaying any desired static or moving flashing red "congratulations, you're our 1,000,000th visitor"-- Voice, Mar 31 2014 [Voice] yup! But, the world is full of poorly authored sites.
So, a reader/client tool may help.
I think it's possible & preferable to do what this idea is saying.
Technically: The client tool could render the HTML page, and then detect a clicked link, and then, in the background, pre-fetch the link content. During that delay period (0.25s), it could detect that new content (JS) changed the rendering around where the link was clicked. If it did change, then it'd kill the click & let the user decide (with some UI notification). If it didn't change, it'd continue fetching & then begin rendering the new link.-- sophocles, Mar 31 2014 If the problem is from 3rd parties (typically data analysers and social-networks) that take their sweet time sending a pixel-dot or "Like" icon over, you can block those sites.-- FlyingToaster, Apr 03 2014 There are parts of the Visual Studio user interface (the parts that interface with TFS) which exhibit this problem. ******* ******* MS. ****.-- pertinax, Apr 06 2014 I have a solution to this problem that I call RSIC. It allows you plenty of time to cancel an activated link before it leaves the currently loading page and jumps you to the new one.-- Alterother, Apr 06 2014 If it's the Chrome browser under Android, a zero effort solution is to not tap, but press and hold to pop up the "right click equivalent" selection. I've semi-unconsciously trained myself to do this, plus open links in a new tab, whenever I'm other than in a trusted & familiar site. There's deep philosophy around this idea, from the concept of a browser being master rather than slave to content (which begins with browersers surviving replacement with apps), to touchscreen mouse equivalents and the 35+ YO issue of 1 button vs 2+ button mice. I'm kinda demoralized about these fights at the moment, so will say no more.-- CraigD, Apr 09 2014 Back in my day, this was called dial-up.-- Spacecoyote, Apr 10 2014 RSIC is the next evolution of dial-up link protection.-- Alterother, Apr 10 2014 Redstone Scientific Information Center?-- Spacecoyote, Apr 10 2014 Really Slow Internet Connection.-- Alterother, Apr 10 2014 random, halfbakery