Recently I have run across a new (for me) internet phenomenon.
I Google a subject, get a nice list of 4,000 or so sites that might meet my needs and I click on one. Normally, if that is not what I am looking for, I hit the backspace arrow at the top left of my screen and I am back to the original list of 4,000 or so sites.
Recently, I have Googled and clicked on a site and when I decide it is not the one I am looking for, I click on the back arrow to return to the Google list, but ** it won’t let me go back! **
The site seems to override the back arrow function.
The only way to get back to my search is to start Google from scratch (a pain if you have already spent time phrasing the search “just right”.)
Has anyone else had this happen? Is this some kind of new, annoying pop-up technology? Is there any way of getting back to your search, short of starting all over again?
You can get around it (in IE anyway) by using the tiny arrow to the right of the ‘back’ button, it should bring up a list of sites you’ve been on, just select google from it.
Basically the google link took you to a site which had an immediate redirect to another site. When you hit the back button, you go back to the redirect, which immediatly bounces you back to the site you were trying to get back from.
To get around this, use the right mouse button instead of the left mouse button. You’ll get a list of the last dozen or so sites you’ve been to, and you can go down the list to re-select google, bypassing the redirector. Left-clicking the back button twice very quickly sometimes works as well.
I’ve encountered sites that seem to override the back button, however, you are doing too much work to “get back.” In IE (and I think in Netcape, but it has been a while since I’ve used it), when you hover your cursor over the word “Back” a double button appears. The larger button on the left is still labeled Back, but there is also a smaller button on the right with a down arrow. Pressing and holding that “down arrow” produces a drop-down list of recently visited sites. You can scroll down that drop-down to get to the last Google page displayed.
(I have encountered a case where a page will not show up on the drop-down, but it ususally involves a “redirected” page.)
It is indeed an annoying new “pop-up” like technology. All it takes is a bit of VBScript to effectively disable the “back” button.
The best solution (if you’re using Internet Explorer) is to click on the little “down” arrow next to the word “Back”, which will bring up a list of your click-trail, and select your Google page from that drop-down list.
My solution (in IE) is to shift-click the links in the google search so they open in a new window, then when I want to go back to the search results, I just close the new window. It also saves time on pages which are dynamically generated and force another request to the server when you go back to them…you never actually left that page in the original window, so you don’t spend any time waiting for it to regenerate (this is very handy on the SDMB when looking at a forum’s main page).
You don’t even need that. You can do it with a Meta Redirect tag. No scripting required. If you do it with scripting, though, it’s possible to make it so that the redirection page does not get added to your list of visited pages, so that your Back button functions just like you’d want it to. One case of an annoying little script saving the day.
If you are using internet explorer - click the tiny down arrow next to the back button, then click on the topmost google item.
the sites do this by having two pages, the first sends you straight to the next. so when you press the back button the browser does it’s job properly - it goes back to the first page. then the first page sends you straight to the second page.
and DICKHEAD WANKER who implented that and other similarly SAD WANKERISH tricks - they DON’T FUCKING WORK. all they do is make people want to RAM FORKS IN YOUR EYES.
I just tried it, and all seemed normal to me. The “back” button took me right back to the google list.
I’m using a mac (and IE). Does that have anything to do with it?
Peace,
mangeorge
Having had to put up with lousy slow dialup connections, I mastered the double window trick years ago. In fact, you really don’t have to close the second window (unless you’ve hit a porn site that keeps spawning new windows); in Netscape, you can right-click a hyperlink and copy the link location, then switch windows and paste the new address in. I use three or even four windows if I’m dealing with indexes of indexes.
I have found that when a site traps me I double click on the back button and usually the first or second try takes me back to the former page. The other solutions given should get you back also without having to recreate your search.
This “trick” was not originally developed to be a trap, and I doubt it’s intentionally being used as a trap now!
It had a perfectly benign purpose. For instance, if you moved your site to a new page, you could put one of these auto-forwards at the location of the old page, and people would be taken to it. The malfunctioning Back button was an unfortunate side effect. I don’t know how people browsed the internet many years ago when the trick was first concocted, but I imagine that it was a little different than how it is today.
As I said, there is now a way to achieve the same effect without the side effect, through scripting. Good webpage designers will implement this method, but I don’t think most people think of it.
Speaking of Googling and second windows, you can actually set your Google preferences to always open links in a second window. The page is at http://www.google.com/preferences .
Of course, you have to let Google set a cookie, so there are privacy implications if you’re concerned about that stuff…
I can guarantee you that the first time I saw it, over four years ago, it was most certainly designed as a trap, and is still intentionally being used as a trap. It was all the rage in my industry, and as a matter of fact, it will increase revenue, at least in the short term. I personally don’t use these tricks on my adult sites, because I feel it’s such a turn-off for the potential customers.
Example: (I am not affiliated with this site in any way, and I made it not into a link purposefully. Mods if this is against the rules please delete the name with my apologies)
Warning: adult site adultflics.com (without the K)
This version is a little more advanced, in that each time you click back, you’ll get a new site targetting a different fetish)
That said, there are legitimate benign uses and in some cases it is an unfortunate side effect.
Also, I should state a simple meta refresh leading to a moved page is obviously not an intentional trap. However, many of the more elaborate methods are a matter of intelligent design.
Who the heck clicks directly on a link these days? That is SO 1988!
The way to browse is to right-click (or alt-click) a link and select “Open in Background Window”. Repeat process for every interesting link on the list page. Then go to the Window menu and read the resultant pages. Close 'em when you’re done. Or pursue links on THAT page if you wish.
As pointed out before, it originall designed to foward the use to website locations that have changed. I believe there are two main ways to do this:
Meta tag:
As pointed out before, it originall designed to foward the use to website locations that have changed. I believe there are two main ways to do this:
Meta tag:
