Google’s new search redirects make links harder to check before you click
Brief
Google is changing how some links in its search results work.
Instead of linking directly to the destination, Google has started routing some search result links through opaque google. com/goto? url=... redirects. The url parameter does not show a readable version of the destination but uses a custom, Google-specific encoding.
Google confirmed the rollout to Search Engine Roundtable :
“We have a long history of deploying technical measures against evolving forms of abuse, and we regularly take steps to protect our services and users.”
Google has not said precisely what abuse the change is intended to prevent. However, the most likely reason is that the redirects are designed to make bulk extraction of destination URLs from Google search results more difficult and costly. Automated tools must now ask Google to resolve each result separately.