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I just had an online experience that aggravated me a bit from a usability standpoint.
I Cmd-clicked a Google Ad because I was interested in the ad, but then the ad did an override on my Cmd-click. My current browser window was taken away from its page.
Cmd-click is a Mac shortcut that is supposed to open the link destination in a new window. I think Ctrl-click is the Windows equivalent (?).
Anyway, it seems Google thinks they are special enough to F with people's browser shortcuts, because my browser's current window was re-routed to the ad destination. I really don't appreciate this at all. I didn't want to abandon the page I was already on - I just wanted to check out Google's ad in addition to it. But apparently this is not good enough for Google. You either sell them your entire soul or get nothing.
I decided to investigate a little further and found another site (CNBC) where the Cmd-click is also broken but in a way that is disadvantageous to Google. The Cmd-clicked page just doesn't load at all.
Now it's starting to look less like covert malice and more like developer sloppiness. Google went out of their way to break the way my browser (Firefox) functions, in order to bring me: either aggressive advertising or a totally broken user experience. I'm not sure what's going on here, but how can I get my Open In New Tab functionality back?
Mentalist
Posted 2019-06-25T15:15:47.440
Reputation: 171
Lots of ads on sketchy sites do this. You could use a plugin that blocks scripts or disable Javascript to try to prevent some of this. But, it isn't really Google doing this. Or, you know, don't visit sketchy sites and don't click ads. – music2myear – 2019-06-25T16:34:09.187