jQuery anchor preventDefault

Question

Using jQuery, how do I get the value from a textbox and then load a new page based on the value?

For example, lets say the textbox contains "hello" on page1.php, how do I change the default behavior of an anchor tag to now load the following

page2.php?txt=hello

I have the following so far:

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(document).ready(function(){
    $("a.mylink").click(function(event){
        alert("link clicked");
        event.preventDefault();
    });
});
</script>

Answer 1

Html

    <input type="text" id="demoQuery" />
    <a id='demoLink' href='javascript:'>Iam a link</a>

Javascript

jQuery('#demoLink').bind('click',function(e){
      e.preventDefault();
      document.location.href="someUrl.php?text="+ jQuery('#demoQuery').val();     
});