Click without a click?

Can hovering over a link for a while cause it to be taken?

[reloguy]

Is it possible that Google has set up some ad blocks so that hovering over a link for, let's say, 10 seconds actually causes the link to be taken?

I had my mouse resting over an Adsense link (large rectangle) and, all of a sudden, I was on another site... the site in the link! I didn't click anything.

Has this happened to anyone else? Has it always worked this way?

[ShunT]

Were you on a labtop? Sometimes they're setup so if you tap the cursor it's the same as clicking. As for this being something on Google's side, I doubt it. Not only would it cause many accidental/invalid clicks, it would be annoying for the visitor when he comes back to a "pop up" ad on his screen. Not good.

[FTFlash]

Yes. I highly doubt that Google would do anything so rash. Especially without telling everyone.

[ann]

Odd, this same thing happened to me a few days ago. I was using my regular PC.?

Ann

[stuartc1]

sounds like some webmasters are creating sneaky pieces of javascript which could cause this - in the hope to increase earnings. I'm pretty sure it would be possible, but very risky.

[FTFlash]

Wow. I didn't think of that.

Well, I wouldn't be doing something so risky.

[abkaiser]

Or what about that Google caching service (can't remember the name), where it automatically downloads the page you're on, and all available links, to speed up browsing times? Does that service download ad links too?

[ann]

I KNOW I'm not doing anything sneaky. If I was I wouldn't hover over my own ad for LOL

Ann

[reloguy]

There'a a "Hover to Select" mode in Windows but, as far as I could tell, it applies only to the On-Screen Keyboard (an accessibility feature.)

Perhaps a virus/malware program could turn that mode on in other applications. In addition, there must be a system event that takes place after a few seconds of hovering over anything on a Web page because a "title" attribute on an element triggers a tooltip upon that event. A bug or malware program could intercept that and perform a click.

Perhaps it's our friends at G. doing a little experimenting?

[JJao]

Now that you mention it, this is possible. Wow!

This seems like an evil and highly unwanted strategy to me, unfortunately also very simple:
Hovering (or pageload, or ...) is the triggering event, going to the next page the action. No news here.
The part missing is the hyperlink placed on a seperate (inline) page by javascript. Can another script collect these links in the mean time? Yes it can :(

[cagey1]

Brace yourselves for the inevitable "I accidently hovered over my own ad - will Google kick me out of Adsense?" threads...