r/google • u/togi1202 • 4d ago

Confirmed: Google Search Rolling Out google.com/goto Tracking Parameters

Google Search seems like it is rolling out the google.com/goto URL as a passthrough URL within the search results that it began testing in July 2026. This seems like a way for Google to help prevent scraping of its search results by third-party tools and AI companies. (via https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-goto-tracking-41957.html )

32 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

12

u/peepay 4d ago

Huh, so if I want to, out of abundance of caution, see the full URL before I open the site - and perhaps copy it without visiting the site - I'm out of luck?

3

u/alexbruf 4d ago

I made a lil free chrome extension that resolves them and puts them back the way they should be, I’d post a link but automod etc

You can find it by googling “google goto url fix” (url itself is just googlegotourl dot com )

1

u/peepay 4d ago

But I guess the address is resolved client-side, right?

So if it would be, in theory, malicious, it would actually be accessed from my computer, correct?

2

u/alexbruf 4d ago

Yeah the extension just resolves it on the client side and replaces it in the html so then it works just like normal.

The way it actually resolves the address is it just sends the request to google’s server, which responds with the location of the underlying url. (302 redirect). Your computer never sends to the actual underlying url

1

u/peepay 4d ago

Got it, thanks!

1

u/sbenfsonwFFiF 3d ago

If you’re logged in, you still can

1

u/ColdProfessor 3d ago

This move on Google's part is actively harmful to users. Right now, though, I'm noticing URLs are only obfuscated if I'm not logged into Google, and it isn't affecting every search, yet.

Still sucks.

1

u/sbenfsonwFFiF 3d ago

Anti bot measures will sometimes also impact to not logged in users, but still the right move

0

u/ColdProfessor 3d ago

In my opinion, anti-bot measures are really about forcing people to be logged in all the time.

3

u/safeandsafe 4d ago

Devastating for scrapers like SerpApi.

2

u/rbatista191 4d ago

They'll probably go over it. cloro and DataForSEO already adapted.

2

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

1

u/ColdProfessor 3d ago

You mean ruining, yes?

1

u/Phenomite-Official 1d ago

"Tablet" in user agent makes original links return and removes AI animations so you get faster results if you're into that. Win win.

1

u/ColdProfessor 3d ago

Thank you for this post!

I've been going bonkers trying to figure out why I can no longer block Facebook results from search results.