links in posts indirect?

Why do most links within posts go first to “api.viglink.com”, rather than their eventual target?

Doesn’t do it for me. But then again, viglink.com is one of the restricted sites I setup in my browser.

Does it happen with this link? If so, you’ve probably got malware.

I have viglink.com blocked by my browser, but a couple days ago in a thread there was a link that kept getting routed thru it (and therefore went nowhere). Other links in other threads worked fine. And if I copy and pasted the link, it worked fine.

There was a “#” page link in it that might have thrown something off.

Can’t remember which thread it was. But there is something odd going on once in a blue moon.

(If I come across it again, I’ll post here.)

For me, loading the current page causes the browser to attempt executing JavaScript files from:
[ul]
[li]eXelate (insight-s3.exelator.com)[/li][li]Google Analytics (www.google-analytics.com)[/li][li]Quantcast (edge.quantserve.com)[/li][li]Rubicon (tap-cdn.rubiconproject.com)[/li][li]VigLink (cdn.viglink.com)[/li][/ul]

So yeah, there’s a lot of “other stuff” going on.

We’ve had threads on it before. A quick search reveals:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=636875&highlight=vigilink

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=608769&highlight=vigilink

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=614950&highlight=vigilink

Viglink isn’t malware. As Ed Zotti explains it,

Vendors pay Viglink a commission if anybody buys something after clicking on a link on the SDMB, and Viglink pays the SDMB a portion of that commission.

It does for me.

Me too. But cochrane has the reason listed above.