Bug 196844 – Hyperlink Auditing ping attribute should clearly indicate that a secondary request will be sent

• Status: NEW
• Component: Platform

[Ricky Mondello]

Hyperlink Auditing ping attribute isn't user-visible in any meaningful way

Per the spec (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/links.html#hyperlink-auditing):

> When the ping attribute is present, user agents should clearly indicate to the user that following the hyperlink will also cause secondary requests to be sent in the background, possibly including listing the actual target URLs.

At least one WebKit client, Safari, is not to spec here, as the user is given no feedback before following the hyperlink that the ping will be sent. We should explore ways of automatically if possible, or with minimal adoption, adhering to the specification.

[Maciej Stachowiak]

When/if we add some form of transparency, we should make sure it works with the various ways this info is presented:

- Status bar on hover in Mac Safari
- Tooltip on hover in Mac Mail
- Longpress link behavior on iOS Safari (not sure if this also covers other iOS clients)

(I don't know as much about link following information in other ports and products.)

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/49836431>