Google does this so they have click tracking data. But they don't need to mangle URLs in Chrome because it supports the `ping` attribute on <a> tags [0].<p>The ping attribute basically adds click tracking as a native browser feature so you don't need to do URL redirects. It also makes these analytics much easier for the site and mysterious to the user. Looks like most vendors besides Firefox support it. (They were pretty opposed I recall)<p>If you're a Chrome user, there's some extensions that disable ping requests/link auditing [1]. (EDIT: a commenter noted that uBlock Origin already blocks these! So I recommend that over this obscure extension)<p>[0] <a href="https://caniuse.com/ping" rel="nofollow">https://caniuse.com/ping</a><p>[1] <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ping-blocker/jkpocifanmihboebfhigkjcdihgfcdnb" rel="nofollow">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ping-blocker/jkpoc...</a>
I find link mangling to be a great test for when a service becomes too powerful relative to its users, able to add friction to its product that serves no purpose for its users[1]. Google started doing this around 2004[2]. Facebook didn't do it until a few years ago. Slack and Discord don't do it. Yet.<p>[1] Example: a search result that's a pdf. How do I share this link? If I click on it it downloads to my disk. If I rightclick on it I can copy a crappy URL.<p>[2] <a href="http://akkartik.name/firefox.html" rel="nofollow">http://akkartik.name/firefox.html</a>
It is really worth it to switch to DuckDuckGo. You can throw a g! at the end of your search if you don't like the results DDG gave and it will redirect you to Google. That was the feature that gave me the confidence to switch over, it's painless to get different results, even on a mobile keyboard.
I have no mangling issue—thanks to uBlock annoyances filter: <a href="https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/blob/02d16a221c276fe58bdd72cc947b26eaf9d1318e/filters/annoyances.txt#L4560-L4561" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/blob/02d16a221c276fe...</a>
There's already an add-on which does this, and more.
<a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/clearurls/" rel="nofollow">https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/clearurls/</a>
To add a little color and for clarity:<p>Some google links (notably shopping links for products) don't just point at a google-owned redirect (presumably for ad tracking/payment calculation?), they also change the link target on click (?!?evil!?!). There are redirect-removal addons which re-write the original URL correctly, but the on-click handlers mangle the target of the link if the event is not blocked.
While this might solve the problem for the Google search engine it is but a patch to a bigger problem. Instead of applying this patch on each and every device you happen to use it is much more effective to refrain from using these search engines directly by using a meta-search engine like Searx [1]. This not only solves these obnoxious attempts at leaching a bit more data from you, it has an even bigger advantage: it shows search results from multiple engines, ranked in the way those engines present the results to an anonymous user. This often reveals interesting patterns by showing just how those who run these search engines either promote or demote relevant results for a given search. Google clearly prefers to show results from corporate media and established actors (e.g. Wikipedia) above those from non-affiliated sites, DuckDuckGo gives far more 'organic' results.<p>[1] <a href="https://searx.me" rel="nofollow">https://searx.me</a>
I've been using neeva.com lately, and I'm warming up to it. I like the idea of the search engine's revenue coming from aligning with its searchers, rather than its advertisers.<p>One thing I dislike, however: making you agree to terms when sharing an invitation link with friends. You'd think they would want that to be zero mental friction?
Mozilla has refused to fix the stealth URL rewriting on mousedown/onclick behavior for years[1]... it's super toxic and harmful to user privacy.<p>Why do they bother not implementing pings when they allow an equivalent privacy invasion to continue? Either way the user's privacy is invaded, but at least URL copy/paste still works correctly with the ping functionality.<p>[1] e.g. <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=229050" rel="nofollow">https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=229050</a> though I'm sure there have been many other bugs filed on it.
I used to use “Google/Yandex Search Link Fix” but it died along with XUL <a href="https://github.com/palant/searchlinkfix" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/palant/searchlinkfix</a>
It is also possible to use user scripts & Violent Monkey on mobile - Kiwi browser [1], based on Chromium, supports browser extensions as well as full Developer Tools. :)<p>[1] <a href="https://kiwibrowser.com/" rel="nofollow">https://kiwibrowser.com/</a>
I wrote a simple addon that avoids just that <a href="https://github.com/dandanua/copy-true-link" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/dandanua/copy-true-link</a><p>The code doesn't prevent event propagation, instead it copies the link before propagation happens. I guess this way is more reliable. It works on other sites too, like FB.
While it doesn't modify the behavior of any sites, Intercept Redirect automatically skips most redirect services. It's a dead simple implementation that attempts to require the bare minimum permissions to do the job.<p><a href="https://intercept-redirect.bjornstar.com" rel="nofollow">https://intercept-redirect.bjornstar.com</a>
Anyone on Safari who wants to run this script - UserScript (<a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/userscripts/id1463298887" rel="nofollow">https://apps.apple.com/us/app/userscripts/id1463298887</a>) seems to work well
It's certainly a bad user experience to not be able to cut and paste links.<p>It's also kind of a bad web search experience to have actual web search results hidden below ads and Google properties.<p>On the other hand, "Google search" is very good for searching Youtube and other Google properties.
Speaking of Google web products not working with Firefox: Google Meet backgrounds. What's most frustrating there is that it used to work until they disabled it to just throw up an ad for Chrome (i.e. use a "supported" browser).
I use <a href="https://startpage.com/" rel="nofollow">https://startpage.com/</a> instead<p>Good search results, with privacy
psst, don't tell google, but sometimes I like to click the triple dots next to a search result and copy the url in the popup box to the clipboard to get the url without any of the tracking crap.<p>(I mostly do this when google's redirect page lags for some reason)
they've been doing this for a very long time. didn't know about this ping attribute for anchors though.<p>i always just assumed it was for improving the index. the more a result gets clicked, the more relevant it must be.<p>it's kind of a zero'th order optimization.