HTML 5 has added many new Link Types in the specifications. rel=”noreferrer” is one of such link type (anchor tag attribute in fact) applicable to <a> and <area> elements.
All XML and HTML document is represented by a Document object. Document object has many attributes. One among them is “referrer“.
The Document.referrer returns the address of the Document from which the user navigated to the current page. If it is blocked or there was no such document it returns an empty string.
As mentioned in Resource metadata management section of HTM5 Specification of w3.org “The referrer attribute must return either the current address of the active document of the source browsing context at the time the navigation was started (that is, the page which navigated the browsing context to the current document), with any component removed; or the empty string if there is no such originating page, or if the UA has been configured not to report referrers in this case, or if the navigation was initiated for a hyperlink with a noreferrer keyword.“
“noreferrer” Link Type indicates that no referrer information is to be leaked when following the link. That means the browser not send an HTTP Referer header if the user follows the hyperlink of type “noreferrer“. So “Document.referrer” will return an empty string.
Google Chrome is a WebKit-based browser. Webkit nighties now supports HTM5 noreferrer link creation. . This means that the browsers that are based on WebKit will be supporting the rel=”noreferrer” Link Type. In Google Chrome browser you can open a web page new tab in a separate process. If you are navigating a new tab to another website, Google Chrome will look for hints to open new tabs in a separate process. To achieve this you can use the rel=”noreferrer” attribute.
If the HTTP request is generated by clicking a link of type noreferrer, then the HTTP Referer field will be empty. It has the similar effect as that of navigated from about:blank page. As mentioned by Google you can create a link to a different web site that targets a new window without passing on referrer information. You need to give both target=”_blank” and rel=”noreferrer” attributes to the link.
For example
<a rel="noreferrer" href="https://www.globinch.com" target="_blank">Globinch Opens in new tab and new process</a> |
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These tags also impact Affiliate Networks as it hides referrer information. WordPress has started adding these tags to your links. But you can remove these tags from your link using https://wordpress.org/plugins/udinra-noopener-noreferrer-remove/ plugin