Just a quick heads up to anyone who is using the latest version of Firefox: for some reason, the developers of FF 3.6 decided that the browser no longer needed the “properties” option that you could easily access by right clicking on a link.
If you think this is as essential as I do, well then don’t waste another second here and go download the addon you need to restore link properties.
Of course, if you’re still staring blankly at the screen, wondering what the hell I’m talking about, well then read on!
You see, a browser can often display a link in a way that isn’t quite honest. Using “onmouseover” and some other attributes can hide the true destination of a hyperlink. Now the properties option will show you the actual destination URL except in those cases where they’re using an actually redirect via 301, php, or even meta info. So I guess the link properties function won’t always tell you where your link is headed…
But its also a quick and convenient way to check out the follow or nofollow status of a link. Yup, when you right click the link and hit properties, it will show you the various attributes attached to it like nofollow, new tab, new window, etc..
Of course, there are exceptions to that use as well. Lately I’ve seen a couple of comment platforms that don’t show “nofollow” in the properties tab despite the attribute clearly being there in the source code of the page.
So ok, maybe this function was of limited use in the first place, but its still a handy thing for anyone working online to have. I haven’t seen any issues with this addon, so why not download it and try to keep up to speed on the status of the links you come across while browsing? Maybe it would be a good time for me to check out some of the ones that automatically highlight nofollowed links, but in the meantime I must insist on the ability to quickly check out the actual coding of a link before I click on it or go out of my way to acquire one pointing back to my sites!
hi John,
Cool trick. I just tried the right-click-properties thing. I had no idea what I was missing all this time. And yet another reason to put off upgrading my FireFox browser. 🙂 I wonder why they deleted this feature. I like it! One learns something new every day. Thanks! And when I do upgrade, I know where to get the addon. 🙂 Steve
you saved me.. thank you
“Maybe it would be a good time for me to check out some of the ones that automatically highlight nofollowed links”
Hey Admin that’s good idea, if you wan to use that functionality I advice to instal SEO Quake http://www.seoquake.com/. It’s add-on for FF Chrome and even Safari, besides the other functionalities there is an option to see the nofollow links, or install some other plug-in for that purpose.
SEOQuake seems to bog down performance when I run it on some machines – not sure why though. This was an unfortunate feature to lose and I missed it as soon as it was gone. It’s actually kind of humorous when a vendor misses the mark like this and removes something popular. Not sure what’s worse… that or adding something the everyone hates like MS adding Clippy to Office.