If a page contains JavaScript that makes a POST request when the page loads, then it’s the developers of that page that are violating HTTP norms, not the developers of software that loads such pages. POSTs are unsafe requests that should be made as part of a user’s intent. Following a link should always be safe. Microsoft aren’t responsible for this problem – the site developers are.

We already went through this with Google Web Accelerator and 37Signals twice. They couldn’t accept that mere links were a bad idea for deleting things, and GWA came along and deleted their users’ data by following links. They tried to detect and block GWA instead of following HTTP rules and it happened again.

Links are supposed to be safe. Ignore this at your peril.