Do you mean the situation where the display text is like:

http://www.example.com/

but the actual link address is like:

http://we.track.your.clicks.com/?redirect=http://www.example.com/

I've always selected with my mouse, sometimes a bit loosely to avoid clicking the link and use Ctrl+c (or right-click > Copy) in that case. I don't know if there is a more efficient/elegant way to do it.

You are close. When it's like that I do the same thing. This prompted me to do some additional research to better communicate my question. The link to which I'm referring, I think, is 1 step away from the display URL. It may be a mouse-over URL.

The problem I have is when the display text is:

Example Company

the actual link is:

http://we.track.your.clicks.com/?redirect=http://www.example.com/

And the URL displayed (upon mouse-over) at the bottom of the window:

http://www.example.com/

Try:

• Redirect Remover: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/redirect-remover/

Hmm, the address that shows at the bottom of the window should usually match what you get if you right-click the link > Copy Link Location.

Some sites will modify the address when you "mouse down" on the link (this is how Google's exit tracking works), in which case you might end up copying the modified address instead of the one you intended to copy. In that situation it's challenging to extract out the original link once it's changed and you may need to reload the page and attack it differently.

One possibility is to use the Inspector. right-click something close to the link but not the link itself, and choose Inspect Element (Q). Firefox should open a panel in the lower part of the tab showing the HTML of the clicked element. You can select different parts of that area of the document in the Inspector until you find the link (<a> element) and copy the value of the href attribute (double-click it to select it).

That's definitely not convenient if you're planning to do it often. A bookmarklet or userscript might be handy in those cases. Is there a particular site where you have this issue where you want would a convenient solution?

Redirect Remover is great! I'm going to click "yes" on that answer.

jscher2000, that's seems to be the only problem I have left--Google. I hate how my system churns on their bad links. Can you provide some hints on how to "attack it differently"? I'd really love it to work the way it used to--without those nasty URLs that cripple a system, bringing everything to a halt.

This extension says it cleans Google links: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/google-search-link-fix/

For some reason, I don't get redirection on Google links, possible due to one of my many Greasemonkey user scripts related to Google.

YES YES YES YES YES! Now all my link problems appear to be solved.

Thank you, both, cor-el and jscherr2000. I will attempt to click oon "Solved the problem" by both appropriate answers (my concern being it may only allow one).