Ever since Firefox extension Search Status came out people have been able to quickly see all no follow links on a site highlighted in pink. To some this was a great new tool and to others it was not so good.
Personally I think it should be up to the site owner as to how the site is ultimately rendered. And lets think of the users! Do we really want the first impression of the site to be a bunch of pink highlighted links?
So with some javascript I came up with a way to disable the Search Status Highlight No Follow feature and put it in a wordpress plugin for all to use. This way you can improve the overall user experience of your site or (Hypothetically) hide your no followed paid text links.
Download - No Pinko The Un No Follow Wordpress Plugin
P.S. You may want to change the plugin folder name and file name of the JS file to avoid the view source crowd.
Good idea! I didn’t know about the search status FF plugin, but I have the Wikipedia-nofollow plugin installed in my blog. Not only would the pink links look tacky, they could cause confusion if or when I have paid text links; the pink links could visually suggest that paid links led to reference material, or vice-versa. That would be bad. Thanks! I’ll be downloading this.
Wait… you’re actively breaking the plugin?
People are installing this plugin *specifically* to see (among other SEO-related info) what links are no-follow. You’re basically saying “I know that’s what you want… but I’m overriding your preference because I don’t like the way it looks.”
I wholly disagree with the idea that the ultimate word in how the site displays should belong to the site owner. Are you going to try to break *all* plugins that modify a site’s presentation?
Remember, we’re not talking about normal browser behavior for normal users. These are people who sought out and installed a plugin because they wanted to see this extra information.
Once they install it, they’re going to see pink links everywhere, including the MSNBC homepage, Wikipedia homepage, etc. etc.. Is there any chance that they will stumble on your blog for the first time instead, and think you designed it with pink links? I don’t think so — they’ll know it’s the plugin functioning normally.
So instead, when you break the plugin, they’ll just think (wrongly) that your site doesn’t use nofollow.
Is that what you want?
You are targeting users of a specific plugin for a specfic browser because you don’t like how your site looks while being viewed with a plugin designed to change the look of a site and undoubtedly a plugin the user has installed for a reason. If a site did this to a plugin that I use, I would boycott the site.
“Personally I think it should be up to the site owner as to how the site is ultimately rendered.”
I think this attitude is completely outdated.
Web != Print
True that web!=Print. But if it’s my site, I own the content. I don’t care what plug-ins you install. It’s my content and I worked hard to make it the way I want it to look. Boycott my site if you don’t like it.