Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by wubrr 928 days ago
Referrer is basically optional though, you can specify a link to have no referrer : `<a href="example.com" rel="noreferrer">link</a>` , among other ways.

It's true that the links only increase the revenue/traffic to their website though, so they should really be supporting the referrers rather than blocking them.
1 comments
randomdata 928 days ago
> you can specify a link to have no referrer : `<a href="example.com" rel="noreferrer">link</a>` , among other ways.

But you wouldn't do that if you want the link to resolve. If you don't want it to work, why would you go to all of the trouble of creating the link in the first place?

link
Dylan16807 928 days ago
And block people that use a bookmark or share the link via chat programs? I think almost no sites would do that.
link
randomdata 928 days ago
They would if the users affected do not impact their bottom line. After all, the whole point of this is to keep out users who are not paying their 'fair share' via Google/Meta by proxy.

But also, the technical solution to bookmarks and small-scale sharing between friends is quite obvious. You don't need referrers to solve that problem.

link
wubrr 928 days ago
Huh? The link would still resolve and work, just the referrer header wouldn't be set.
link