When jQuery Mobile encounters a simple link (<a href="something.html">Foo</a>), it will automatically capture any clicks on that link and change it to an AJAX-based load. This means that if it detects that the target is something on the same page, that is, the hash-mark style (href="#foo") links we used previously, it will handle transitioning the user to a new page. If it detects a page to another file on the same server, it will use AJAX to load the page and replace the currently visible one.
If you link to an external site, then jQuery Mobile will leave the link as it is, and the normal link behavior will occur. There may be times when you want to disable jQuery Mobile from doing anything with your links at all. In that case, you can make use of a data attribute that lets the framework know it shouldn't do anything at all. An example:
<a href="foo.html" data-ajax="false">Normal, non-special link</a>
As we saw in Chapter 1, Preparing Your...