Google is changing how some links in its search results work.
Instead of linking directly to the destination, Google has started routing some search result links through opaque google.com/goto?url=... redirects. The url parameter does not show a readable version of the destination but uses a custom, Google-specific encoding.
Google confirmed the rollout to Search Engine Roundtable:
“We have a long history of deploying technical measures against evolving forms of abuse, and we regularly take steps to protect our services and users.”
Google has not said precisely what abuse the change is intended to prevent. However, the most likely reason is that the redirects are designed to make bulk extraction of destination URLs from Google search results more difficult and costly. Automated tools must now ask Google to resolve each result separately.
Since the rollout has apparently not reached my neck of the woods yet, I had to grab an image from another source.
Some Reddit users find the change ironic: Google built its search business by automatically collecting information from other websites, but is now making it harder for others to collect information from Google.
Other users have complained about the collateral damage to legitimate tools. Rank tracking, SEO auditing, research, archival, accessibility, and alternate-index services may all face the same rate limits and costs as abusive scrapers.
Search results data provider Autom reports that the final destination is viewable only through the redirect response’s Location header. This means bulk collectors must make an additional request for every result.
Security
The first thing that popped into my one-track mind was the security downside. We often tell users to hover over a link before clicking it so they can check where it leads. That advice is less useful when hovering reveals an encoded Google redirect rather than the destination website.
Google still displays the claimed destination above each search result, but users can no longer use the link preview as an independent check.
So, Google, where does this leave our advice? We already tell people not to click Sponsored search results. Should we now tell them to avoid goto?url links too? Or will you give users an easy way to check where a link leads before they click it?
