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Ask HN: Why does Google proxy links in an email?
I'm testing a reset password link in a Rails app. When I click it from gmail.com, my firefox browser goes to
https://mail.google.com/_/scs/mail-static/_/js/k=gmail.main.en.piH2wZyhMOREGIBBERISH....
before routing to the /reset_password url. What is google doing with this URL proxying?
- benologist 12y agoIt's probably so they can disable malicious links.
- hellbanner 11y agoIf they wanted to disable malicious links, they could crawl the page and substitute the link for a warning page (ala Chrome's "this site may be phising")
- twunde 12y agoI don't know for sure but most likely they're doing it for the same reasons they proxy images: Better protection against malware Source: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.html http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/images-now-showing.htm... Additionally I would assume that they may use the data for analytics and advertising in order to display more relevant ads. Another possibility would be to complement the site data they got from crawling websites.
- hellbanner 11y agoThanks for creeping me out, Google.