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Everyday Search Results....What's Google up to?

  • 16-09-2009 10:31pm
    #1
    ve
    Closed Accounts Posts: 448 ✭✭


    For the past while I noticed out of the corner of my eye the URL that is called when you click on a link from a Google search listing, acting a bit funny. When you hover your mouse over a link it shows the proper link, but when you then click and hold down the mouse button, some javascript obviously rewrites the URL and you end up calling some google service before being redirected to the actual URL that you intended visiting.

    Give it a go, and do a search for say boards.ie in the search bar. Then on the first link, hover the mouse over and it will say www.boards.ie, etc. Then hold down the mouse button like you are about to click and see that it changes to something completely different. A service in Google where you are simply passing the target URL as a parameter.

    I'm not 100%, but it doesn't look like it's getting to the target website and then calling Analytics or anything like that. It looks like its some Javascript right on the search listing page that is rewriting the URL as soon as you click a link.

    What's that about?, or has my PC caught a known cold?


Comments

  • #2
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,593 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    ve wrote: »
    For the past while I noticed out of the corner of my eye the URL that is called when you click on a link from a Google search listing, acting a bit funny. When you hover your mouse over a link it shows the proper link, but when you then click and hold down the mouse button, some javascript obviously rewrites the URL and you end up calling some google service before being redirected to the actual URL that you intended visiting.

    Give it a go, and do a search for say boards.ie in the search bar. Then on the first link, hover the mouse over and it will say www.boards.ie, etc. Then hold down the mouse button like you are about to click and see that it changes to something completely different. A service in Google where you are simply passing the target URL as a parameter.

    I'm not 100%, but it doesn't look like it's getting to the target website and then calling Analytics or anything like that. It looks like its some Javascript right on the search listing page that is rewriting the URL as soon as you click a link.

    What's that about?, or has my PC caught a known cold?

    Looks to be appending a query string so that the target site know what search strings got them the hit.


  • #3
    Tallon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,565 ✭✭✭✭Tallon


    Its a hit counter, so google knows its doing its job and how many times a day its doing it :)


  • #4
    Tallon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,565 ✭✭✭✭Tallon


    FYI
    http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.boards.ie%2F&ei=j2CxSoq0IN2b4gbw1KytCg&usg=AFQjCNH0IzKGt54FxMrwmDu0SWXrwFynMQ&sig2=iLarrouXiBelCTi2aepBIQ

    Heres the hit counter index :)
    http://www.cqcounter.com/


  • #5
    ve
    Closed Accounts Posts: 448 ✭✭ve


    Granted a hit counter seems like a plausable application, but given the level of resource consumption/bandwidth already used up by Google services, surely actively monitoring "hits" via links clicked on SERPs would be pretty darn demanding.

    I'll be honest (and yes I'm paranoid), I thought my PC was being bold and rewriting my request URLs as the result of some botnet trying to take down Google.

    Now my gf just came along and suggested I use IE(8) instead of Firefox 3.5.3, and low and behold it does not do that in IE8. When I do a mouse down on IE 8, the URL does not get rewritten, and I go straight to the target website when clicked.

    So hit counter I think not. I think there is something more sinister happening locally. Any ideas?


  • #6
    Tallon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,565 ✭✭✭✭Tallon


    Check your phone line, this conversation could be being tapped !


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  • #7
    ve
    Closed Accounts Posts: 448 ✭✭ve


    Can you confirm with evidence that it is just a benign hit counter?. It could very well be, I would just wonder why they are only interested in hit monitoring follow throughs via Firefox and not IE, which IMO wouldn't really offer them a accurate view of popularity.

    I'm starting to think that Firefox has some extension that is responsible for this behaviour. I am positive however that this new code came on board with a recent upgrade.

    Hey, call me paranoid, but I think in this day and age it naieve to be clicking on links without ever acknowledging where your browser is connecting to. I just thought it a little odd that URLs were being rewritten on mousedown events in Firefox on Google SERPs.


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