User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:10.0) Gecko/20120129 Firefox/10.0 SeaMonkey/2.7 Build ID: 20120129104549 Steps to reproduce: I am not sure that this is a bug, but did not know where to post it so filing it as a bug. When we search for something in Google and get the search results, and when you "hover the mouse" on a search result hyperlink, at the bottom left corner of browser, I see the "actual website URL" to where I will be going. But when I click the link, it seems that, first the request goes to Google, and from their it is redirected to the "actual website". It seems that the "onMouseDown" is doing JavaScript function call to do this redirection. My question is; is this legitimate to "show" something in the HREF and "go somewhere else"? Does a browser really allow this? I guess Google should show the actual redirection URL, or in these cases the Firefox should not allow. Any comments would be really appreciated. I also wrote the following email to Google on this issue, but did not get any response till now. Also I have observed the same behavior in Yahoo search results also. ================= Dear Google, Why are you masking the search result URLs? For example searched for the word "java" and got some search results. I hovered on the first "non-sponsored" link, and I see the URL as "http://www.java.com" (this is what seems to be a A HREF). But when I click it with my Live HTTP Headers Firefox addon (and HttpFox also) turned on, I see that the actual URL that was requested is not the one that was shown on hover, but it is "http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=java&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.java.com%2F&ei=IpwuT7OpDM3LsQLXqsD6DQ&usg=AFQjCNGZ1ueCJH6n9ahkvKPBSzLI7Sh4vw". After that it did went to "http://www.java.com". My question is why are you masking the "http://www.google.com/url?" URL from the A HREF? When I see a plain URL in the search result, I think that I am directly going to that site, but it seems that my clicks are first going to Google and then to the actual URL. Why don't you show real URL itslef in A HREF? Any answer to my question would be really appreciated. ================= Regards, Satish. Actual results: A HREF shows something and the request goes to a different URL. Expected results: A HREF shows something and the request goes to a different URL.

No a bug. By design by google. Nothing we can do. Might be an add-on out there.

The status bar is not a secured ares like the URL bar. It's possible to spoof the address since the invention of Jabascript. marking as dupe of bug 229050 There is an addon for google https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-search-link-fix/

(In reply to Matthias Versen (Matti) from comment #2) > The status bar is not a secured ares like the URL bar. > It's possible to spoof the address since the invention of Jabascript. > marking as dupe of bug 229050 > > There is an addon for google > https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-search-link-fix/ > > *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 229050 *** Thank you for the information and the Addon.

I guess the following addon will not work anymore with the current Google search result links, as these redirect using the JavaScript onmousedown event. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/google-search-link-fix/