n. A technique that forces a user to remain on a particular — and usually pornographic — web page.
1999
The trap is, appropriately enough, called mousetrapping, because once you're at a Web site that uses this technique, you can't leave, just like a mouse in a trap.
You'll know you're caught by this technological dirty trick if you suddenly lose control of your browser. No matter what action you take trying to close the browser window or pressing the back button, for example you can't escape.
You'll know you're caught by this technological dirty trick if you suddenly lose control of your browser. No matter what action you take trying to close the browser window or pressing the back button, for example you can't escape.
1999 (earliest)
The FTC obtained a federal court injunction against Carlos Pereira, WTRFC Pty Ltd. (an Australian corporation) and Guiseppe Nirta (an officer of WTRFC) to stop the pagejacking and mousetrapping scheme.
The FTC charged Pereira, Nirta and WTRFC with copying other companies' web pages and putting in extra "metatags" on their copycat page that would show up in Internet search engines. Once users clicked on what they thought were legitimate listings of innocuous content from the search engine, their browser would be misdirected to pornographic web sites. That's known as pagejacking.
The pagejacking scheme does not affect pages reached through bookmarks, properly coded links on other pages or by typing the URL in the address field in the browser.
When users tried to backtrack or close their browser, hidden code on the pornography web pages disabled the software on the consumer's computer and displayed more pornography, the FTC said. That's mousetrapping.
The FTC charged Pereira, Nirta and WTRFC with copying other companies' web pages and putting in extra "metatags" on their copycat page that would show up in Internet search engines. Once users clicked on what they thought were legitimate listings of innocuous content from the search engine, their browser would be misdirected to pornographic web sites. That's known as pagejacking.
The pagejacking scheme does not affect pages reached through bookmarks, properly coded links on other pages or by typing the URL in the address field in the browser.
When users tried to backtrack or close their browser, hidden code on the pornography web pages disabled the software on the consumer's computer and displayed more pornography, the FTC said. That's mousetrapping.