Search results pages should be simple:
- a search box (with the term I just entered)
- the list of page titles descriptions
- full URL of the page for each result
Throw in some ads and let's call it a day (gotta make billionaires keep the lights on). So why does Google - essentially the gatekeeper of the modern internet - keep messing with algorithms, page designs, and search results?
Oh yeah, the billionaires thing.
And with AI now wrecking the internet, Google's a little more nervous about its role, so in response they are breaking a key piece of the search results page: the URL.
Why are URLs So Important?
The internet was originally envisioned as a way to access interlinked computers, share documents, and foster collaboration. The uniform resource locator (URL) was born from this initial vision and is used to identify the absolute location of a page, file, or other resource on the internet.
Even today URLs are a fundamental part of the internet and well understood by most users. That extends to search results pages by giving users a definitive address of where each search result lives on the internet.
What is a Goto Link?
In short, a Goto Link is a hashed version of a search result URL that Google must process before sending a user to their destination.
A typical search result on Google is pretty simple:
The preview of that link should show:
https://www.amazon.com/2016-2021-carplay-Navigation-Bluetooth-Steering
That's pretty obvious: the URL goes to www.amazon.com and appears to be the genuine site. Clicking it will navigate to the expected page.
But now? Google displays www.google.com/goto for the preview and the actual href is worse:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjqwcXMxdCWAxVN6ckDHX99EV8QFnoECBkQAQ&url=/goto?url=CAEShAEB6zswFYMOoO1bWGo74nmdk8wCSVt7UyxpwOspJnxANxdlOEwLNJvWfG-QNrcyp_3g7y1Bv_gPJQr0bMXCsJlpkzRDExr24zRCI9FDgktNiKCdZS-CiyOZL4wwkR4_2kK5WVhWgWvkMQw17FCtR3k15nrrOBBKNRe-vvXxPNP7eV81PRw&usg=AOvVaw2Ys-em_LBg1-QSpqaPXxSq&opi=89978449
I have no idea where that URL is taking me and I hate it. Buried in that gobbledygook is a hash of the destination link. In order to navigate the URL, Google has to first process the click before sending me on my way, which complicates a lot about the modern web.
There's always a cat-and-mouse game being played between Google and marketing teams (the first page of Google search results is sacred digital ground), and with AI search threatening Google's core business, goto links are a way for Google to fight back against theft (data scraping, SEO analytics, etc.) of its search results data.
Why Is This Bad for Us?
For marketing and SEO teams collecting analytics by scraping Google Search results, it means extra technical work that does become expensive for large volumes of data (every search result must be clicked and inspected post-navigation for the same data that was previously a simple scrape - it's a real processing cost).
But as a normal everyday user, malicious sites just became a bigger threat. Security is what's at stake for everyday users. The link preview meant that I - as a mere peasant on the internet - could at least inspect the destination URL before clicking it.
- "Where will this link take me?" Look at the URL.
- "Is this the website I intended to land on?" Look at the URL.
- "Is this my bank or a phishing site?" Look at the URL.
I would certainly notice the differences between https://chase.com/login and http://chas3.ru/login.php (clearly dangerous since it's a PHP site - joking, of course, kinda).
But when every search result URL looks like it belongs to Google (e.g. https://www.google.com/goto=JI273NF781), the burden of policing websites is further in Google's hands than ever before. And I have no way of verifying if I'll land where I want or somewhere potentially dangerous when clicking a search result.
And that's an extremely high cost to pay on today's internet.