TL;DR
- Google is working on a fix for the problem of nefarious websites preventing you from going back to your previous site.
- The fix is in the very early stages within Google Chrome, but is at least in development.
- In the meantime, avoiding this browsing history manipulation problem is simply a matter of good browsing habits.
It’s likely happened to everyone at some point: you’re browsing the internet and come across a site you don’t want to be on. Your first instinct is to hit the Back button, but when you do nothing happens. The only way to leave is to dig deep into your Back button history to find the proper page or manually type in a new address in the address bar.
Google refers to this as “history manipulation,” and it’s working on a fix for the problem within Google Chrome, via 9to5Google. The fix is in the very early stages for right now, so don’t expect anything to roll out any time soon, but at least there is some progress on the issue.
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History manipulation is when a website is coded to artificially inject web pages into your browser. When this happens, hitting the Back button just takes you to the same page, or really wherever the web developers want you to go.
Going forward, Chrome will identify history manipulation and then send the pages in question back to Google for analysis. We assume Google will then take action against sites which are repeat offenders in this way.
