Link Thumbnail: Simple JavaScript to Preview a Hyperlink's Destination

JavaScriptSearch
Wednesday, July 19, 2006; 03:43 AM

New York based developers arc90 have unveiled a script that, once implemented, shows users that are about to leave a website exactly where they are going.  When the mouse pointer is positioned over a link pointing to somewhere outside of the site, the script displays a small image of the destination page.

The Link Thumbnail script in action.

The useful visual cue for visitors can be set-up by any webmaster with minimal knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.  The JavaScript code and an example web page are available for free download in the form of a 5KB ZIP file. The Link Thumbnail script works in all popular browsers. 

The code, together with detailed instructions, is available at http://lab.arc90.com/2006/07/link_thumbnail.php.  This is the second free tool released by arc90.  The previous script, called Unobtrusive Sidenotes, was a mix of Javascript and CSS that made it easy to incorporate sidenotes into web pages or blogs.