What I tend to do when trying to reach a link is dash the mouse quickly to the area of the screen where the link is, then slowly adjust to the right place. The first quick movement may go over the link, but it generally overshoots further than the increased hover area, and the slower, more percise movement tend not to roll over and overshoot the link (either get very close to the link but not enough to active hover or hit the target).
This function is still useful, but only by getting used to the availability of this increased hover area, I no longer have to be so percise. I’m just not sure of its usefulness when found on occasional websites.

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Just out of interest, say you had two links placed on adjacent lines one on top of the other e.g. (perhaps in a paragraph or side menu)

link1
link2

The user will still benefit from having a larger link area on hover; however, say you hovered over link1 before link2, does link2’s hover activate when directly over it or will you still be in link1’s hover area? (if you get my drift.) And if not has anyone managed to overcome this?

The size of the original link doesn’t actually get larger until you hover over the original link. How is this making it easier to click since you still have to get in the original space.

example:

A link to be clicked is 10 x 20. It will expand to 20 x 40 when hovered. But you still have to get your mouse into that original 10 x 20…. How does expanding it to a larger target help, especially since you have already reached the target?

You make valid points, but exaggerate the negatives.

I’m not sure it’s appropriate at all for normal web text links

While more beneficial in the areas you mention, I think it is intuitively obvious that anything a user has to hit with a mouse benefits from increased area.

The technique, like any technique, should be adapted to users’ needs and the site’s design. If you are worried about overlap with other links or text, increase line height and/or use a smaller amount of padding. Alternatively (and this is what I now prefer to do), you can have a small (no overlap) amount of padding applied to a elements and increase it (a little overlap) on a:hover.

As for not using the technique on my site: you may have noticed this site looks a lot like a lot of other wordpress sites. It is using the excellent K2 template from Michael Heilemann and Chris J. Davis. I’ll have to speak to them about including the technique. You will notice that I use the technique on my professional site.

In fact, the potential conflicts with other text links in the lines above and below, the barrier to selecting and copying text, and the simple divergence from normal web standard practices would indicate that the negatives outweigh the positives. It’s like putting ALT tags on every image on your site, including the background textures, the rounded corners, and the decorative curly cues — you might mean well, but the effect really doesn’t help.

This is why I hate calling heuristic guidelines “laws” — it tends to make people try to conform to letter of the law to the point of defeating the spirit of the law itself.

I suspect you agree with this in your gut, insofar as you do not use this technique on your own site. Trust your gut! :-)

I’m so good at killing bugs, but I can hardly ever make these cognitive leaps. Nice going David, sure glad everyone is not as dense as me.