Google is encrypting its search result URLs. I'm still recovering all of them in one pass. — Suganthan
suganthan.com
Google now hides the destination URL on every search result behind an encrypted blob. I took the encryption apart, and I can still read every ranked URL off the page in one pass.

About a week or two ago, I started noticing that I could no longer copy the clean links for search result hits on Google. I thought it was maybe some quirk of a browser I was using, but today when trying to copy a link to a Youtube video, I realized it was actually rolled out globally (it seems).

Basically instead of getting a
https://youtube/. com/watch?v=-ed6UeDp1ek link now through google, (spaced out link to avoid AutoMod) you will get
https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAES<rest-of-encrypted-blob-containing--versionByte-keyID-cipherText>

The article describes the change in technical detail, and mentions a fix, but the author has kept it private for now so Google doesn’t patch it up (like they probably will or have for this workaround relying on the “Translate Page” feature with a different Browser Language selection [Twitter Link, Aug 27]).

Why it will probably be patched:

Surprised there’s no post about it here already.
Only Hackernews article I could find (4 days ago):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49506338

Edit: It seems to matter a lot whether your network is deemed “spammy” or problematic by Google for the encrypted URLs to kick in, even if you’re logged out. Funnily enough my google searches went back to normal a few hours after I posted this. So a logged out session might get the regular, unencrypted links if your IP network has a good rating on Google’s end. Mine often runs into captchas and the like, so it makes sense why I’d be targeted by this new change.
Then again, I just tested on my mobile cellular on a logged out search, and I still have the goto’s. Can’t really control that.

  • onionsinmypores@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    61·
    1 day ago

    I wasn’t aware of Qwant. It seems to build its own index instead of relying on other providers (great), and has proper backing to be a viable competitor in something so big (the French government seems to endorse it; along with institutional use in EU parliament?).
    I just tested it and unfortunately got a 403 however (FORBIDDEN). Though I was behind an endpoint of a very popular VPN for some testing, that sucks regardless.

    Actually, before I could post this, I tried the search refresh and it worked somehow.
    To test again I switched to another server of the same VPN provider (same selected country) and tried searching. Same error, which didn’t go away after doing the refresh. So they might have some sort of spam prevention measure which eases itself automatically, but I feel like it could definitely be implemented better if that’s the case.

    Edit: Yep, if you sit on that 403 page for 5-6 minutes without doing anything and then hit the relaunch your search button, things work as intended afterwards.

    • kuiskaaja@lemmy.mlEnglish
      214·
      1 day ago

      turn off your adblocker

      edit: lmao why so many downvotes? this is what qwant does when you use an adblocker

        • kuiskaaja@lemmy.mlEnglish
          24·
          1 day ago

          if you have a good adblocker, you can turn it off for sites that have responsible policies with privacy and advertising and are barely scraping by as it is.

          if you can’t turn your adblocker for specific sites, get a better one. ublock origin is great.

          in case you can’t stand ads and need an ethical search engine get something like kagi. you have to pay for it but these websites can’t operate for free. don’t leech off companies that are struggling.

      • onionsinmypores@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        I tried without uBlock Origin on my end and it did indeed work. I incorrectly assumed it was my vpn without properly verifying. Though CactusEcho said there were problems without the adblocker so it may be inconclusive.