Blame Jerry. (Is Jerry Canadian?)
I think of Jerry sort of like a benign and harried Mitch and Murray.
Then how come so very few sites actually do it, then? How come you are able to use the SDMB, since it always silently redirects you to another page before landing on the real page? Or how can you use Google which does the same thing? Websites redirect all the flipping time. Very rarely does the user need to be notified.
Also, I don’t like this sudden trend of starting a post with bullshit just because you disagree. It seems needlessly inflammatory to dismiss someone’s post as being completely without merit unless you actually have some sort of proof. All you had was your own usage, which I’m sure you realize is atypical. Most people don’t even know what Ctrl-W does.
I’ve been seeing redirect landing pages (instead of launching pages) for a while now. Even the US Census website uses a landing page. That means you are already redirected to the new site before you get any form of notice. And, even then, the only reason you get a notice is because the entire site structure has changed so much that they can’t guess what page you were actually trying to get to.
You may not like it, but I do believe it is the newer trend. Redirect launch pages are considered old fashioned now.