> I was expecting it to cause a redirect to the original
    > article. Instead it redirects back to Google search
    > results. Say What?

Well, what it does is exactly what I would expect; if clicking 'X' redirected to the author's site I would be thoroughly confused.

If I click on a link and it opens in a new tab, I don't close the tab ('X') expecting to go to the home page - I expect to go back to the page from which I opened it.