4 ms·

Why? I don't really see why this is bad, other than if your company blocks url shorteners/redirects. What are you losing?

nextaccountic 14d ago
I use a Firefox extension to rewrite those Google redirects into plain links, to remove Google tracking of which links I click. The extension is broken now
JohnFen 14d ago
Because I wouldn't want Google to know what links I click on. When I used to use Google, and they added such redirects that included the destination URL as a parameter, I'd edit the link to make it just that URL before resolving it. This new scheme would make that impossible.
- what 14d ago
  They already knew which links you clicked on though…
  - googapologist 14d ago
    [flagged]
  - deleted 14d ago
    [deleted]
  - JohnFen 14d ago
    How? I never allowed Javascript or anything.
  - smart_asslop 13d ago
    Even with JS enabled, they did not. Linked below is an explanation which includes confirmation of that fact by a member of the uBlock Origin team. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49680338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49680338
- brainwad 14d ago
  They own the JS on the page, they don't need the redirects to know where you clicked...
  - googapologist 14d ago
    [flagged]
  - deleted 14d ago
    [deleted]
  - smart_asslop 13d ago
    Hello! It appears that you are disseminating misinformation. A uBlock Origin developer now confirms, regarding Google results click tracking: It existed in a way or another, but it could be blocked. Now it can't. Which corroborates the mysteriously flagged sibling comment. https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1we7491/how_to_bypass_googles_goto_url_rewrite_for_search/p9fnjzq/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1we7491/how_t... Next time, please consider listening to people who know how the web works and avoid overconfidently parroting what Big Tech gatekeepers want you to think. Thanks!
    - brainwad 13d ago
      It's not misinformation. By default Google has been able to click track with JS. If you disable JS, they don't serve you search (https://serpapi.com/blog/google-now-requires-javascript/ https://serpapi.com/blog/google-now-requires-javascript/). Yes, if you are tricky, you can block just the part of the JS that does click tracking, probably. But most users can't do that. They therefore were already getting 99% complete click tracking before this change. This change is not about click tracking, it's about blocking scrapers. And btw about the result filtering the uBlock dev wants to do: of course this can still be done, if you preload all the goto links on the page and then inline the real URLs returned by the preload requests. Perhaps not easy to do as an extension but at a browser level (Brave?) totally possible. Though Google might then think your users are scrapers...
      - 13d ago
Fabricio20 14d ago
Blocking URL shorteners and google-ad links yes! Personally for me it's also the fact that this is effectively an unresolvable URL shortener, store that link somewhere and it will most likely be dead. Can't copy link anymore and paste it on a notepad or chat app to check it out later as there isn't a guarantee it will load at all (ie: the problem with url shorteners).
exlr 14d ago
[flagged]

nextaccountic 14d ago

I use a Firefox extension to rewrite those Google redirects into plain links, to remove Google tracking of which links I click. The extension is broken now

JohnFen 14d ago

Because I wouldn't want Google to know what links I click on. When I used to use Google, and they added such redirects that included the destination URL as a parameter, I'd edit the link to make it just that URL before resolving it. This new scheme would make that impossible.

what 14d ago
They already knew which links you clicked on though…
- googapologist 14d ago
  [flagged]
- deleted 14d ago
  [deleted]
- JohnFen 14d ago
  How? I never allowed Javascript or anything.
- smart_asslop 13d ago
  Even with JS enabled, they did not. Linked below is an explanation which includes confirmation of that fact by a member of the uBlock Origin team. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49680338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49680338
brainwad 14d ago
They own the JS on the page, they don't need the redirects to know where you clicked...
- googapologist 14d ago
  [flagged]
- deleted 14d ago
  [deleted]
- smart_asslop 13d ago
  Hello! It appears that you are disseminating misinformation. A uBlock Origin developer now confirms, regarding Google results click tracking: It existed in a way or another, but it could be blocked. Now it can't. Which corroborates the mysteriously flagged sibling comment. https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1we7491/how_to_bypass_googles_goto_url_rewrite_for_search/p9fnjzq/ https://old.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/1we7491/how_t... Next time, please consider listening to people who know how the web works and avoid overconfidently parroting what Big Tech gatekeepers want you to think. Thanks!
  - brainwad 13d ago
    It's not misinformation. By default Google has been able to click track with JS. If you disable JS, they don't serve you search (https://serpapi.com/blog/google-now-requires-javascript/ https://serpapi.com/blog/google-now-requires-javascript/). Yes, if you are tricky, you can block just the part of the JS that does click tracking, probably. But most users can't do that. They therefore were already getting 99% complete click tracking before this change. This change is not about click tracking, it's about blocking scrapers. And btw about the result filtering the uBlock dev wants to do: of course this can still be done, if you preload all the goto links on the page and then inline the real URLs returned by the preload requests. Perhaps not easy to do as an extension but at a browser level (Brave?) totally possible. Though Google might then think your users are scrapers...
    - 13d ago

Fabricio20 14d ago

Blocking URL shorteners and google-ad links yes! Personally for me it's also the fact that this is effectively an unresolvable URL shortener, store that link somewhere and it will most likely be dead. Can't copy link anymore and paste it on a notepad or chat app to check it out later as there isn't a guarantee it will load at all (ie: the problem with url shorteners).

exlr 14d ago

[flagged]