How do we get Google and Twitter to use href attributes again?

Question

I keep finding new places where Google and Twitter use elements or elements with an onclick handler instead of an href attribute; see this example on a search result page: https://i.imgur.com/MjyoyJr.png and this example on Google Maps: https://twitter.com/beaugunderson/status/1428011803179507715 and this example on Twitter's trending topics: https://twitter.com/beaugunderson/status/1428441375444377601 There are probably many reasons to care about this but mine is that I want to cmd-click more than one result at a time to open them in tabs and I can't do that if they don't have hrefs.While I don't use a screen reader it seems like a worse experience because of this if one does: https://a11y-101.com/design/button-vs-link https://naga.co.za/2020/03/13/links-vs-buttons/ It's become a truism that Google only fixes things when they appear on HN and whichever PM is responsible notices them; here's hoping that happens here.

cheesetable · Accepted Answer

Use nitter, a plain Twitter frontend.Pick a close instance from https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/InstancesI have installed https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nitter-redire...

swiley · Answer

I don&rsquo;t use google and Twitter because the pages are fucking unusable even on a modern browser because of stuff like this.Once you adopt that attitude &ldquo;making&rdquo; large corporations behave reasonably stops being something you worry about.

Miiko · Answer

That's not a bug but a feature - when using href, it would be not possible for them to get data on what link you clicked, and both Google and Twitter rely much on that info.

slater · Answer

They have no reason to use href attributes. So they won't.

Use nitter, a plain Twitter frontend.
Pick a close instance from https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances
I have installed https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nitter-redire...

How do we get Google and Twitter to use href attributes again?

I keep finding new places where Google and Twitter use

I don’t use google and Twitter because the pages are fucking unusable even on a modern browser because of stuff like this.
Once you adopt that attitude “making” large corporations behave reasonably stops being something you worry about.

That's not a bug but a feature - when using href, it would be not possible for them to get data on what link you clicked, and both Google and Twitter rely much on that info.

They have no reason to use href attributes. So they won't.