What's the best way to strip the URL wrapping of Google Search (and other tools)
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In the past, when one searched for a link on Google, the links provided were the actual URL of the found object. Today, the links provided from a google search are wrapped up in a google URL -- presumably so that google can monitor, track, and monetize the usage of their links. What's the easiest way to strip this URL wrapping dreck? Is there a generalized tool to cut through this stuff and provide the simplified URL? I am becoming troubled with Google's attempts to squeeze more revenue from its users. Google: it's fine for you to display advertisements when I search for something, but can you please provide me with a URL that isn't also wrapped in spam? I notice that Bing doesn't do this wrapper nonsense. For the very first time, I am seriously considering switching over to Bing. |
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Based on a cursory glance at the URLs in question, the full URL to the search result is URL-encoded into the link's href, so it wouldn't be difficult at all to extract it with some simple Javascript. While I don't have a specific link for you, I would suggest you search Userscripts.org for a script that does this. You'll need the Greasemonkey extension to use these scripts on Firefox, but they'll work natively in Chrome. I find it interesting that it's not all the URLs that are wrapped this way. |
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duckduckgo.com is a good search engine. Google has become a monster. Android is a product of Google, not of a startup. Google wanted to enter the post pc age in a hurry as the market was changing fast. (No Pc no google. Siri takes over.) They just Grabbed every intellectual property which they needed and let lose their minions to shout that intellectual property is not to be patented. Google will not let go of their patents and make all their intellectual property public. Google is evil that it stalks every one's life to make money, not people who have spent years and lot of money in developing new ideas. Apple does not collect any private information to sell. Rather they make a product which you had never thought of, but now essential. Innovation versus theft. |
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With Firefox, I block google-analytics.com with the NoScript add-on and get plain vanilla urls on search results. I'm sure there are ways to block google-analytics with other browsers, but I rarely use the others—perhaps a 'hosts' file would work better for you. I try to protect my privacy—I never sign in to my Google accounts except when it's needed, I use the NoScript and BetterPrivacy add-ons for Firefox, and I use https whenever it's available, including on Google. Edit: I just learned google-analytics has an option for most browsers: Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on (BETA) at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout |
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if you search for the string "no redirect" in the firefox extensions search you will find a couple of exten sions that do exactly what you're looking fore- they take a (Google or other) wrapped URL and extract the real URL from inside of it, presumably just by using simple regular expressions. |
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