Quoderat

Bill de hÓra is outraged that people are blaming Google Web Accelerator (GWA) for following HTTP GET links, rather than blaming the morons^H^H^H^H^H^Hweb developers who built web sites that use innocent-looking GET requests for actions with side effects, like (say) delete or launch missile attack.

I don’t know if GWA itself is useless hype, an evil conspiracy, or a good thing (I suspect some combination of the first two), but Bill’s right that the assumption that it’s always safe to follow a GET link is one of the basic pillars of the web. Initiating a potentially dangerous action in response to a GET request is on the same level as putting a “wings fall off” button on the arm of an airliner seat — sure, we’d prefer that the passenger not hit the button, but why is the button there in the first place?