[newheart]

So what’s the dif b/n that and this when you follow an outside link from Free Republic:

“You have selected a link to an external website. In a few moments you will be redirected to http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/09/22/is-the-web-heading-toward-redirect-hell/";

I have always figured there was some technical reason why that step is needed.

[ShadowAce]

I have always figured there was some technical reason why that step is needed.

I'm not sure why there is that small wait with FR. I don't think there is a purely technical reason for it.

Perhaps John Robinson can enlighten us?

[antiRepublicrat]

For the technical aspects it helps the source gather statistics on what sites are being visited.

[GOPJ]

Going someplace by CHOICE is different than being forced to waste your time being redirected to where you don’t want to go...

[ken in texas]

The diff is that with the hidden redirection it's easy to think you're going directly to the target website, and it might not be obvious that you're going through an intermediary. If I click on a Google link, I want to go directly to it, not via a redirect from Google. I'm also sure many people blindly click on links here hoping to go to another thread on FR.

John Rob is merely advising you that you're going external. It's the same info you see on many corporate and government sites if you select a link on a site outside of their control. I just click directly on the link in that message and bypass the additional delay. It's one more mouse click... I need the exercise. :-)