6 ms·

Can someone further explain "ClearURLs has made it to its mission to prevent tracking via URLs and that's how Google makes money"? How exactly does the trackin

Can someone further explain "ClearURLs has made it to its mission to prevent tracking via URLs and that's how Google makes money"? How exactly does the tracking via URLs work for Google?

mcc1ane 6y ago
https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/blob/master/README.md
- alexf95 6y ago
  Hmm, intresting. Didn't think it would be basically "everywhere". Understandable though that i got disabled by Google.
aequitas 6y ago
If you search in Google, the links in the results don't directly link to the result page but through a Google redirect. Really annoying if you want to copy/paste a result without visiting. CleanURL fixes this. So that might be what referred here.
- alexf95 6y ago
  Oh I see what you are saying thanks.
- jacquesm 6y ago
  And more than really annoying if you want to share the link to a pdf with someone else.
agilob 6y ago
I use NeatURL where description says: Before: http www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ioquake3-Auto-Updater&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Phoronix+(Phoronix) After: http www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ioquake3-Auto-Updater It removed unnecessary, known tracking code from URL before visiting the URL so origin of click isn't known to advertisers and trackers.
- brnt 6y ago
  For some websites, I've discovered that setting utm_medium let me read their paywalled articles. So, they're not always useless ;)
  - commoner 6y ago
    Combine ClearURLs with Bypass Paywalls Clean, and you get the best of both worlds: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-clean/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywal... https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea...
    - dannyw 6y ago
      What's the difference between the normal version and the Clean version? The project doesn't say.
      - commoner 6y ago
        The Clean version is updated more frequently, has some extra features, and does not use Google Analytics: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean/-/issues/1 https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea... Bypass Paywalls Clean releases: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean/-/releases https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea... Bypass Paywalls releases: https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/releases https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/release... Currently, the Clean version has 13,750 users while the original version has 9,864 users on addons.mozilla.org, so the fork might turn out to be more popular.

Can someone further explain "ClearURLs has made it to its mission to prevent tracking via URLs and that's how Google makes money"? How exactly does the tracking via URLs work for Google?

mcc1ane 6y ago

https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/blob/master/README.md

alexf95 6y ago
Hmm, intresting. Didn't think it would be basically "everywhere". Understandable though that i got disabled by Google.

aequitas 6y ago

If you search in Google, the links in the results don't directly link to the result page but through a Google redirect. Really annoying if you want to copy/paste a result without visiting. CleanURL fixes this. So that might be what referred here.

alexf95 6y ago
Oh I see what you are saying thanks.
jacquesm 6y ago
And more than really annoying if you want to share the link to a pdf with someone else.

agilob 6y ago

I use NeatURL where description says: Before: http www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ioquake3-Auto-Updater&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Phoronix+(Phoronix) After: http www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ioquake3-Auto-Updater It removed unnecessary, known tracking code from URL before visiting the URL so origin of click isn't known to advertisers and trackers.

brnt 6y ago
For some websites, I've discovered that setting utm_medium let me read their paywalled articles. So, they're not always useless ;)
- commoner 6y ago
  Combine ClearURLs with Bypass Paywalls Clean, and you get the best of both worlds: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-clean/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywal... https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea...
  - dannyw 6y ago
    What's the difference between the normal version and the Clean version? The project doesn't say.
    - commoner 6y ago
      The Clean version is updated more frequently, has some extra features, and does not use Google Analytics: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean/-/issues/1 https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea... Bypass Paywalls Clean releases: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean/-/releases https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea... Bypass Paywalls releases: https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/releases https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/release... Currently, the Clean version has 13,750 users while the original version has 9,864 users on addons.mozilla.org, so the fork might turn out to be more popular.