When you click on a link that exits the page, nothing happens until the new page loads, often leading to unnecessary double clicking. The browser should blank the old page, or grey it out, or dissolve to the new page, or do some kind of transition.)
This is actually something Google made a proposal about:
It's not making it cute that matters. It's making it fast. With modern slow, bloated web sites, there are much longer delays between clicking on a link and the page display than there used to be. Especially on a slow mobile connection. Something needs to visibly happen as soon as you leave the page, even if the browser hasn't even received any packets from the new site yet.
This is actually something Google made a proposal about:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/11/20/chromes-upcoming-nav...