[wlamond]

I don't work at Google, but I think they do that to gather click through data for links and positions on the results page. Simply linking to the destination would prevent them from learning valuable information about the quality of their search engine and what users think is valuable.

[lkbm]

I'm sure they do. They could probably get that data from the vast majority of users using Javascript. I assume a concurrent onclick request wouldn't slow things down noticeably.

[nezza-_-]

An onclick request wouldn't be concurrent with the loading of the new page.

[dchichkov]

How about a right click? Google substitutes the link on the right-click as well. Which creates loads of frustration for users wanting to copy say a link to a research paper to an e-mail.

[_lce0]

they do click traking on any Google product.. Just try to click in a gmail attachment.. Seriously, Why on earth do the need to track those as well?