JavaScript: Change browser window status message

Question

It was once possible to change the message a browser shows in the status bar at the bottom of the window. This functionality has been disabled in newer browser versions due to abuse.

<script type="text/javascript">
window.status = 'hello world';
</script>

Is there still any way to achieve this (consider jQuery available)? I think I still see pages around that change the status message, but they might use Flash or Java to change the window status.

Answer 1

Using the browsers statusbar to display page info is in most cases a very bad idea, the browsers has not disabled it without reason.

1. Nobody looks down there to find such info.
2. People expect it to show browser information. When hovering links for example i want to know if i leave the site, if it's a mailto:-link, if it's a pdf etc.

Instead use somthing like the orange(yellow?) thing stackoverflow have at the top of the page. "Are you new to stackoverflow...", "New posts has been added..." etc etc.

Answer 2

Have a look at the pages still changing this info. If it is being done by javascript you should be able to see the source.