Resolved What purpose could this possibly serve...?

[Parasprite]

All instances of iTunes in posts seem to create links to iTunes.com.

Of course, my immediate thought was malware... except...I'm on an iPad. Also, it's a direct link...just seems an odd idea feature (and/or advertisement) to me.

I'm not complaining... I'm just really confused.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Yeah, I saw that too. At first I thought it was some quirky thing that the poster was doing. Have seen that kind of thing in blog posts in the past.

It looks spammy.

 

[S.B.G]

That's weird. Is it only when using iOS?

 

[pivo6]

That's weird. Is it only when using iOS?

OK. I'm testing this on Android. If I type iTunes does it create a link?

 

[S.B.G]

OK. I'm testing this on Android. If I type iTunes does it create a link?

Nope, not on my Mac or my iPhone (mobile or desktop site).

 

[pivo6]

BTW, I am using Chrome browser, in case that matters.

 

[Parasprite]

OK. I'm testing this on Android. If I type iTunes does it create a link?

(iOS) I'm not seeing it anymore either. However, it seemed to be happen at random with only some page loads when it did...so I'm not 100% on that.

At least 2 others saw this within the span of a couple hours.

[1 hour after I first noticed]
Does anybody notice everywhere the word iTunes is it's a link ?

[1.5 hours after I noticed]
It's a macrumors bug. Or if not (i.e., if it is a new "feature") then I would still call it a bug.

[2 hours after I noticed]
macrumors itunes bug seems to be fixed now.

I would guess it was a server glitch but it seems like an oddly specific one.

Does anyone recall if macrumors previously autolinked websites when you typed a url sans the "http://www." part? I honestly can't remember.

Examples:
iTunes.com
google.com
yahoo.com

I'm thinking whatever code that does that may have been modified or a manual entry got put in by accident or something (think "only supposed to happen with the user level 'Macrumors bot'").

Edit: That's interesting, only iTunes.com got automatically changed into a link. I wonder if apple.com does as well.

Edit 2: It does.

pivo6, on your Android does the above behavior happen for you too?

 

[pivo6]

Note that I'm using the mobile version of this website.

apple.com
iTunes.com

edit:Using the Chrome browser on my phone, links do not show up as underlined, but when you click on the text, it treats the text as links.

Links do show up when using the desktop version.

 

[Parasprite]

Note that I'm using the mobile version of this website.

apple.com
iTunes.com

edit:Using the Chrome browser on my phone, links do not show up as underlined, but when you click on the text, it treats the text as links.

Links do show up when using the desktop version.

I guess it's only Apple websites that get this feature then. Welp, there goes my dream of repeatedly linking samsung.com in iPhone threads... I guess I'll have to find some other way to slightly annoy people. *sulks*