Google Search: Right Click to Copy URL Problem

[tiriya]

Hi,
I encountered a strange problem today in google search:
when I right click a google search result to copy a link and paste it in the address bar, a long suffix is added to the actual URL.
Eg: macrumors in a google search result becomes something like http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j...mors.com/&ei=S1_-Tstjuiklkl&usg=ABTGHdhD0_yYQ etc. etc.

I read that google does this to "track" searches, but I don't recall this to happen before. It's annoying as among other things it also makes it burdensome to download specific file types (browsers download, e.g., pdf's as html and do not display the file name in the downloaded file).

The problem is browser independent --happens in Safari, Firefox, Omniweb, Opera... the ones I tried) and occurs regardless of whether I am logged in to a google account or not.

Is the only way to fix this to turn off javascript? (after which it gets difficult to use the advanced features of google search...)

Thank you!

 

[GGJstudios]

I find it annoying, as well, but I know of no way to turn it off without disabling JavaScript. You can strip off all the tracking data and extract the URL itself, but it's not a clean and simple process.

 

[tiriya]

Thanks GGJ

The two other pages I found that discuss the problem (with their own solution involving scripts):
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/rid-unwanted-redirects-google-search-results/
http://www.consumingexperience.com/2009/10/google-search-results-redirection.html

I applied the solution submitted on the second page in a comment: added the http://www.google.com/extern_js/f/ in customize filters for Safari adblock. I don't know how effective this will be or the "sideffects," but for now it's ok...

(I thought for a while that the problem could be related to the country specific searches of google: google.de, google.fr etc. but probably, it's not. Maybe the filter will work if modified for specific country suffixes: e.g google.de/ extern_js/f/ . )

 

[GGJstudios]

The two other pages I found that discuss the problem (with their own solution involving scripts):
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/rid-unwanted-redirects-google-search-results/
http://www.consumingexperience.com/2009/10/google-search-results-redirection.html

Thanks for the links, but they don't solve the problem completely. I frequently post links when responding to threads here. When I do, I like to have the link formatted with a title, so they make more sense to readers. For example, instead of posting this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342​

I prefer posting this:

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor​

To do that from Google search results, I want to be able to right-click the link in the search results and copy like this:

​

Which should create a link that looks like this:

<a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342">Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor</a>​

Instead of a link that looks like this:

<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=reading+activity+monitor&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.apple.com%2Fkb%2Fht1342&ei=uGP-Ts_TBYe62gWiyKiXCw&usg=AFQjCNEycaFeBrSuW2rhiZ9Q_1LhsORPVQ&sig2=vVB7yk85j9yjyFdmB9ahDA">Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor</a>​

Then to make it ready to post in the forum, I have a script that reformats the link to:

[url="http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342"]Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor[/url]

I wish it was as simple as right-click, "Copy Link HTML Tag", then have some keyboard shortcut that would paste the properly formatted final result. The Google tracking nonsense is a big part of the problem, but I don't want to have to disable JavaScript or log out of Google every time I search.

 

[tiriya]

I understand, I also prefer to be able to copy a proper link regardless of being logged in google or not and without needing to modify javascripts or use adblock...