With the continuous browser updates targeting web security chances are sooner or later browsers will integrate more features to protect users from malicious online content. Some of the open source browsers like Firefox are supported by an extensive community of programmers and enthusiasts who create plugins for various purposes. One of them goes after web content alteration. Without doubt search engines dislike such features as they rely on a certain content structure to promote their services and support their clients and sponsors.

Key Benefits
Search engines generate revenue from various avenues one of them from sponsors advertising via relevant search results returned from a search query. If a browser or a browser plugin can factor out this revenue channel search engine revenue diminishes. At the same time the browser becomes not only more popular for users, but in fact offers safe browsing for casual online surfing.

Setting up links and redirects
Lets examine in practical terms a single detail based on HTML, to illustrate what was mentioned here. The HTML <a> tag is the standard way of exposing web page navigation and assists visitors and spiders to get from one page to another or from one website to another. Other methods using javascripts can also have the same effect as with the straight <a> tag but for simplicity here we use examine static HTML link.

Search engines capitalize on the <a> tag to promote their clients websites by utilizing redirect methods to record the transition from one page of one domain to another. Here is an example of how this is done in HTML:

<a href="http://www.search-engine.com/?client_id=5">http://www.example.com</a>

Once a visitor clicks the link, he will not directly go to example.com but instead to the search-engine.com. Passing the parameter of 5 as the client ID the server script on www.search-engine.com knows that this request must be redirected somewhere else. It checks its records against the parameter passed, records the click of the visitor and finally performs a redirect operation to example.com.

Marketing Clicks
Having this system in place the search engine now measures that there is another click for its particular client/sponsor. Now days these methods are adopted by a plethora of websites who have different objectives to trick visitors into clicking links because of the link content. Some of the intentions are to utilize marketing channels via affiliates others go deeper into click deception to compromise the user's system or browser.

Going back to the code posted above, the link content is the example.com. The visible link content is a source of trust for visitors. It is more likely now days for someone, to click a link that presents a URL, if the surrounding content is relevant, as more and more people understand the web basics. This trust, the link content in other words, is extended for search engines to expose material for advertising and capitalize on the link clicks coming from online surfers. Search results of a search query include sponsor links with the aforementioned method.

Browsers can interfere
Browsers can easily change all that. If the browser includes an addon that replaces the redirected link, with the link content, before presenting the web page to the user, the whole advertising or any kind of click tricks can disappear. And all that is required, is some trivial coding creating a browser's addon. The href element to be replaced by the link content, when the entire link content represents a web page. Taking this method into the next level, the addon can be part of the browser having its default behavior to filter this kind of link copying the content to the href element. As far as we understand people will appreciate it for many reasons including:

• Safer browsing because there are no redirection tricks for these links.
• Faster browsing of web pages because the click operation points directly to a page shown.
• Higher degree of privacy as nothing is recorded because of the straight link click.
• Sites are forced to have better web content as intentions will shift away from hidden links since browsers can also reports link inconsistencies.

Browsers can go on with other link types
Similar methods for link content control can be implemented for headings and visible content. Links containing dynamic parameters and point outside the current domain of the viewed web page, can be faded to reduce the user's attention and consequently minimize the chances of link clicks. The same method can be applied for links that contain active content like javascripts where an implicit redirect may take place. All these areas can be easily covered from the browser engine addons. Overtime based on the user's feedback these methods can become an integral part of the browser and be activated by default.

Of course these conclusions are driven from our experience there are already certain addons that can modify the stylesheet and content the user sees. Their popularity is not that great but over time things may change.