User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:69.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/69.0

Steps to reproduce:

(Used FF 69.0.1 on Ubuntu Linux)

1. Search in google.com for something which is sold in shops, e.g. iphone
2. Google shows several shopping links. Hover with the mouse over one of the URLs, in the status bar it shows e.g. https://www.apple.com/de/shop/go/product/MWC62
3. Now right click on the same URL and copy the link.
4. Paste into any text editor

Actual results:

It pastes a completely different link: https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwj-zL-xn_jkYhVO0d3KHSaGDKcYABaWGgJ3Yg&sig=AOD64_1pYEXoJcwLjPZIgIpPu_Ygyo_J2g&ctype=5&q=&ved=0ahuKErjS7biVn_jrAhVFt4EKHUPFCxsu9aACCjMD&adurl=

Also clicking the link in step 3. doesn't go to apple.com but to google.com.

Expected results:

The status bar should have shown the real link the user would go to or copy.

This is also a security issue because users can be tricked into believing a link goes to apple.com but they end up on a malicious page.

Google changes the URL on mousedown, ie when you press down the mouse button (before you release it, ie before you "click"). So it's not the "wrong" URL, it just doesn't update quickly enough for you to notice. If you right click it and then do nothing, then hover the link again, you can see the modified link in the tooltip.

This is a known issue, but there is nothing Firefox can do about this, because we cannot predict what the website does to the link when you're about to click it - there are many, many different ways in which the link can change before it is clicked.