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Google now has at least 3 ways to track your search clicks and visits that they hide from you.
Have you ever tried to copy a URL directly from Google Search?
When I did that a few months ago, I unexpectedly got something like this from my clipboard.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjUmK2Tk-eCAxXtV0EAHX3jCyoQFnoECAkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcodingbeautydev.com%2Fblog%2Fvscode-tips-tricks&usg=AOvVaw0xw4tT2wWNUxkHWf90XadI&opi=89978449I curiously visited the page and guess what? It took me straight to the original URL.
This cryptic URL turned out to be a middleman that would redirect you to the actual page.
But what for?
After some investigation, I discovered that this was how Google Search had been recording our clicks and tracking every single visited page.
They set custom data- attributes and a mousedown event on each link in the search results page:
<a jsname="UWckNb"
href="https://codingbeautydev.com/blog/vscode-tips-tricks"
data-jsarwt="1"
data-usg="AOvVaw0xw4tT2wWNUxkHWf90XadI"
data-ved="2ahUKEwjUmK2Tk-eCAxXtV0EAHX3jCyoQFnoECAkQAQ">
</a>A JavaScript function would change the href to a new URL with several parameters including the original URL, as soon as you start clicking on it.
import express from 'express';
const app = express();
app.get('/url', (req, res) => {
// Record click and stuff...
res.redirect(req.query);
});
app.listen(3000);So even though the browser would show the actual URL at the bottom-left on hover, once you clicked on it to copy, the href would change instantly.
Why mousedown over click? Probably because there won't be a click event when users open the link in a new tab, which is something that happens quite often.
And so after right-clicking to copy like I did, mousedown would fire and the href would change, which would even update that preview URL at the bottom-left.
The new www.google.com/url page would log the visit and move out of the way so fast you'd barely notice it -- unless your internet moves at snail speed.
They use this data for tools like Google Analytics and Search Console so site owners can improve the quality of their search results and pages by analyzing click-rate -- something probably also using as a Search ranking factor. Not to mention recording clicks on Search ads to rake all the billions of yearly ad revenue.
Google Search Console. Source: Search Console Discover report now includes Chrome data
But Google got smarter.
They realized this URL tracking method had a serious issue for a certain group. For their users with slower internet speeds, the annoying redirect technique added a non-trivial amount of delay to the request and increased bounce rate.
So they did something new.
Now, instead of…
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