Yahoo javascript

[Stride]

Hey all, I'm not familiar with javascript all that much, but I was at
yahoo's site and noticed that when you click on say directory or some
other search category it does that neat little switching thing. Now
I'm a curious individual so I took a look at the source for it, and the
relevant code goes:

<a id=v4 class=o href="r/0a/*-http://search.yahoo.com/search/dir"
title="Search Directory">

Now as far as I've been able to figure out that r/0a/*- looks like some
sort of javascript thing (unless I'm completely retarded, and I'm the
first to admit that's a possibility) and I've been scrolling the
boundless places of google trying to find something and returned zilch.
Anyone have any pointers to info on that href thing if it is indeed
javascript?

Thanks for any info, just trying to satiate my curiosity

Dave

 

[VK]

<a id=v4 class=o href="r/0a/*-http://search.yahoo.com/search/dir"
title="Search Directory">

huh... that is definitely *not* JavaScript. Can you post a link where
did you get it?

Overall Yahoo! uses a lot of psi-links like:
<a href="javascript:someFunction(param)">Link</a>

This is their (and many other portals) preferred way because it is easy
to add such link as a bookmarklet. As bookmarklets are another hot
thing of the season (besides AJAX) I guess it's going to be the winning
way to represent JavaScript calls on the page, despites there are some
problems connected with it.

 

[Stride]

huh... that is definitely *not* JavaScript. Can you post a link where
did you get it?

http://www.yahoo.com, view source, ctrl+f for Directory

Overall Yahoo! uses a lot of psi-links like:
<a href="javascript:someFunction(param)">Link</a>

This is their (and many other portals) preferred way because it is easy
to add such link as a bookmarklet. As bookmarklets are another hot
thing of the season (besides AJAX) I guess it's going to be the winning
way to represent JavaScript calls on the page, despites there are some
problems connected with it.

See, I thought that perhaps that "r/0a/*-" was some weird way of
calling a javascript function.

 

[VK]

http://www.yahoo.com, view source, ctrl+f for Directory
See, I thought that perhaps that "r/0a/*-" was some weird way of
calling a javascript function.

Oh I see. No, it is not JavaScript - it is a rather unorthodox link.
But this is their server - so they can instruct it to accept any
formats they want.
I guess that asterix * points to the CGI processor but they have its
name hidden so people couldn't use it for content grabbers and other
tricks.

 

[Stride]

Ahhh, thanks