What we’re talking about here are those sneaky redirects when browser control is wrenched away from us. Hey!
Problem:
You conduct a keyword search for an issue you’re dealing with. You select one of the sites returned in the search and click on the link. Just as you begin to orient yourself on the page you’re whisked away to another site. Forget using the back browser. If you do, you’ll find yourself shuttled right back again against your will.
This has happened to me with increasing frequency recently. In my opinion this is a huge design mistake and a terrible design practice from a user perspective. A website visitor should ALWAYS be the one choosing when to navigate off the page they’ve chosen to visit.
Solution:
To counter this I’ve found the following helpful in regaining some degree of control over my browsing experience. I use Firefox –currently using version 3.6.15, and I’m not sure which prior versions these settings will also work with. Hopefully you’ve been automatically upgraded and we’re on the same page.
- Open Firefox
- In the menu bar: Firefox > Preferences
- In the dialog box select the Advanced Tab –top row
- Select the General tab –directly below the top row
- Under the Accessibility section check the box: ‘Warn me when web sites try to redirect or reload the page
- Click OK
That should do it. Be aware that when you sign in to a site you’ve subscribed to a redirect may be triggered –for example with Netflix, and you just might be confronted with a blank browser screen. If this happens, look toward the upper right corner of the browser window, locate and then toggle the ‘Accept’ button. That should scoot you right in.
Now, doesn’t that make you feel better?
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