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What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

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Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#62

Post by jxi »

batgaijin wrote: post #60
patio11 wrote: post #59

Speculation: way back in the day if you Googled for [software marketing service], liked what you saw, and had me Google for it, I'd get substantially the same results. That has been increasingly untrue for years, due to geotargeted results, personalization, persistence across searches, search refinement, their datacenter model, yadda yadda. If users expect copy/pasting a link to a search so that someone can repro it…

but what the hell is the point of that if the url redirects to another url? do they really want to track people copy-pasting urls into email/ims? if so, why not use goo.gl?

What redirect? And, did you even read the comment that you're replying to?

1. There isn't a redirect from that huge link. 2. The post replying to just explained a theory that doesn't involve tracking: the URL needs to be that long to be unique enough to specify a page with the exact same search results.

Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#63

Post by dchichkov »

rosche wrote: post #3

But I really want it to stop. I hate not being able to just "copy link address" off of the results page

It'd be really nice to be able to right-click and copy-paste clean URL.

In some cases people don't need the URL in the browser, and don't need to open the actual page (or pdf document). Sometimes one need the URL itself - to send it via e-mail, copy into a command line, or anywhere else.

And in all of these cases it is a pure time waste - going to website (or starting PDF download), or cleaning up the URL, because google deceptively substituted it on a right-click. Or monkeying around with scripts that would prevent Google search from tracking clicks all-together.

And one more thing. Just like the original poster says: people hate not being able to just copy the URL. And every time somebody have to waste time cleaning it up, a little bit of hate towards Google sneaks in.

Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#64

Post by vjani »

q_revert wrote: post #5
rosche wrote: post #3

But I really want it to stop. I hate not being able to just "copy link address" off of the results page

using a greasemonkey script like http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/121261 can fix this for you.. obviously using such scripts brings it's own issues, but a nice(ish) solution imo

A simpler script that just removes the redirection from the search result links can be found here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/134151

Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#65

Post by vjani »

keyboardP wrote: post #4

It's been like this for a while. A Twitter friend of mine created a simple bookmarklet that you can click which will remove the extra data and allow you to right-click and copy the URL alone. You can drag the bookmarklet from here to your bookmark bar http://techkp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/copy-pasting-googles-se... Click the bookmarklet before copying the link to get the actual URL.

Or you could use this greasemonkey script that doesn't even require you to click on the bookmarklet, and it makes all result links direct, so you can reach them faster:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/134151

Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#67

Post by Cthulhu_ »

j_s wrote: post #25

This is Google keeping search keywords for their paying customers (changing referer), among other things. Honestly I wouldn't care so much if it weren't so dang slow at random times! Firefox addon (useful many places): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/redirect-remo... Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/undirect/dohbiijnj... Edit: This comment is relevant to search results, not the address…

Thanks for linking to that one, the redirect thing is very annoying (and time-consuming, relatively speaking, which for a speed-obsessed party like google isn't a good thing or very representative)

Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#68

Post by michaelt »

jxi wrote: post #62
batgaijin wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but what the hell is the point of that if the url redirects to another url? do they really want to track people copy-pasting urls into email/ims? if so, why not use goo.gl?

What redirect? And, did you even read the comment that you're replying to? 1. There isn't a redirect from that huge link. 2. The post replying to just explained a theory that doesn't involve tracking: the URL needs to be that long to be unique enough to specify a page with the exact same search results.

Perform the following experiment:

1. Visit https://www.google.com/search?q=hackernews

2. Mouse over first result, note the url news.ycombinator.com shown in your browser's status bar.

3. Right-click the first result and 'copy link location'

4. Check what's on your clipboard. For me it's www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2F&ei=fRb5UNSeD-am0AW88YGQBg&usg=AFQjCNGKJHXhsq1s0-gYR96B--m47G9oRw&bvm=bv.41248874,d.d2k

5. Visit said URL in your browser and note you get redirected to news.ycombinator.com

As you can see, you are redirected via a huge link.

Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#69

Post by janzer »

michaelt wrote: post #68
jxi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What redirect? And, did you even read the comment that you're replying to? 1. There isn't a redirect from that huge link. 2. The post replying to just explained a theory that doesn't involve tracking: the URL needs to be that long to be unique enough to specify a page with the exact same search results.

Perform the following experiment: 1. Visit https://www.google.com/search?q=hackernews 2. Mouse over first result, note the url news.ycombinator.com shown in your browser's status bar. 3. Right-click the first result and 'copy link location' 4. Check what's on your clipboard. For me it's www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2F&ei=fRb5UNSeD-…

Yes, but that is not the url type being talked about by patio11 or the original article. For the url type under discussion here:

1. Visit https://www.google.com/

2. type "hackernews" into the search box and hit enter.

3. look at the long url in your address bar.

Re: What is up with the insane long Google results URL now?

#70

Post by franze »

my job involves copy & pasting URLs into mails, IMs, documents, .. all the time, that's why my google chrome omnibar triggered default search URL is i.e.:

  https://www.google.com/search?q=hacker+news&pws=0&hl=en
  (pws - no personalization, hl = language)
how to: Google Chrome Settings -> Section "Search" Button "Manage Search Engines" -> Overlay "Other Search Engines" -> Scroll Down -> Add new search engine with the URL https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&pws=0&hl=en -> "Make default"

sadly custom search engines aren't synced in chrome, so every time you set up a new browser, you need to add your custom search setting again...

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