1) Using `preventDefault()` is incorrect. The browser's "default" action is to open the link in the manner the user requested - ctrl+click, "Open in New Tab", "Open in New Window", etc. By preventing this and manually opening the link, we force the user to continue in the current tab/window and that's not very nice.

2) Changing the "href" value brings complications. I tested this (changing the href value, and then allowing defualt to continue) and found that sometimes (but only sometimes) the unmodified link was opened. Additionally, the href value is changed permanently so if the user goes back in their history the link will already be changed & the current naive implementation simply appends another parameter.

Thanks for bringing up the problems with this approach - I'll give it another try.