status text

I want to get status text of any link when this link is clicked.

HTML Code:

---

<script language="JavaScript">
function ClickLog()
            {
        var ecb=escape(window.status);
        alert (ecb);                 
        } 
 
 
</script>

<table width="100%" border="1" >
  <tr>
    <td onClick="ClickLog()"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com">Exclusive</a></td>
  </tr>
</table>

---

But alert message is showing Blank.

and when i change code like that

HTML Code:

---

<script language="JavaScript">
function ClickLog()
            {
            window.status="hello world";
        var ecb=escape(window.status);
        alert (ecb);                 
        } 
 
 
</script>

<table width="100%" border="1" >
  <tr>
    <td onClick="ClickLog()"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com">Exclusive</a></td>
  </tr>
</table>

---

now i get alert message of "hello world"

So i want to figure what is problem with first code.
Actually i want to get alert message showing "http://www.usatoday.com".
where am i doing mistake.
Thank You.

Because I think you still have to set the status message with the URL, the text it normally displays there doesn't really "count"