Greasemonkey Hacks

Hack #20. Follow Links Without Clicking Them

Hover over any link for a short time to open it in a new tab in the background.

This hack was inspired by dontclick.it (http://dontclick.it), a site that demonstrates some user interaction techniques that don't involve clicking. The site is written in Flash, which annoys me, but it gave me the idea of lazy clicking: the ability to open links just by moving the cursor over the link and leaving it there for a short time. I don't claim that it will cure your carpal tunnel syndrome, but it has changed the way I browse the Web.

The Code

This user script runs on nonsecure web pages. By default, it will not run on secure web pages, because it has been my experience that most secure sites, such as online banking sites, are very unweblike and don't support opening links in new tabs.

The script gets a list of all the links (which Firefox helpfully maintains for us in the document.links collection) and attaches three event handlers to each link:

Mouseover

When you move your cursor to a link, the script starts a timer that lasts for 1.5 seconds (1500 milliseconds). When the timer runs down, it calls GM_openInTab to open the link in a new tab.

Mouseout

If you move your cursor off a link within 1.5 seconds, the onmouseout event handler cancels the timer, so the link will not open.

Click

If you actually click a link within 1.5 seconds, the onclick event handler cancels the timer and removes all three event handlers. (Note that you can click a link without leaving ...