Redirects on links are usually more annoying than helpful. Some are put there to act as “click counters” while others really have no point at all. Can we just get rid of them so we can travel on to the next Web page? That doesn’t seem like a big problem to me. If you want to do just that, pick up the Redirect Remover Firefox extension.

Here is what the developer has to say about Redirect Remover:

The way RDR currently works is OK, but it’s not good. It is suitable for geeks, but is rather uncomfortable in the way it currently is. The next versions will have a different concept - the redirects will only be removed on blacklisted sites. You’ll be able to choose between a “all sites are bad, I choose the good ones” or “all sites are good, I choose the bad ones” mode. The “simple mode” will only allow you to choose between good and evil domains and if evil links should get highlighted. (so that you can skip links that aren’t evil though you blacklisted a page).

In “advanced mode” you will be able to specify exact URLs where RDR should clean and you’ll be able to add your own regular expressions to match redirects that aren’t detected by default.

Link redirection is one Web annoyance that I could really live without. If you find yourself in that same camp, give Redirect Remover a shot.

This Firefox extension is for versions 1.0 and up of the browser. If you want to download it and try it out for yourself, you can do so at the Mozilla Update Web site.

Tags: firefox, links, extensions, redirects