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Google would like a word before you leave Google. Or, more accurately, a click.
The company has been routing some search results through its own google.com/goto links before sending you to the website you picked. Hover over an affected link to check where it leads, and you’ll get a Google address followed by a string of characters. Good luck spotting a suspicious domain in that.[1]
Security researchers say this makes a familiar trick for spotting online scams less useful, while the redirect gives Google a chance to record your click on the way out.[2]
Search Engine Roundtable reported the confirmed rollout on August 26, after earlier testing. Google described it as part of its efforts to protect its services against abuse, without identifying the specific activity it was targeting.
Search industry observers believe the change is aimed at automated tools that scrape Google’s results. Those tools now have to resolve the redirects to collect destination addresses, adding work to a process that previously involved reading links from the page.
Malwarebytes researcher Pieter Arntz raised concern in a September analysis, pointing to the familiar advice to hover before clicking.
“That advice is less useful when hovering reveals an encoded Google redirect rather than the destination website,” he wrote.
Google still displays destination information above the search result. But the link preview no longer gives users a separate, readable address to check against it.
Ironically, Google’s own scam-prevention guidance tells people to check unfamiliar URLs before clicking and specifically recommends hovering over suspicious ad links.
That advice applies to ads, but people who check links throughout their browsing now have less information about affected search results.
Seeing Google’s name in the preview could also offer false reassurance. It identifies the server handling the redirect, not the website waiting at the other end.
Your browser has to contact Google to resolve a redirect, thus giving the company a chance to record the request. That gives Google a chance to log the click and link it to available identifiers, like account information or browser cookies.
Signing out doesn’t necessarily sever that connection. Google says it can store information with identifiers tied to your browser, app, or device when you aren’t logged in.
But Google didn’t need /goto to learn which results people clicked. Testing published by search data provider OpenWeb Ninja documented an existing click-reporting mechanism alongside examples of the new redirects.
What remains unclear is whether Google collects or uses anything differently through this feature. The rollout announcement doesn’t explain that, and the redirect alone doesn’t give Google a view of everything you do after reaching another website.
You probably don’t need Google to find your bank every time you log in. Once you’ve checked that you’re on the right website, try these steps:
You can also manage your browser’s cookies, although blocking cookies won’t stop your browser from contacting Google when you open one of these redirects.
If you’d prefer to move your searches elsewhere, check out some private search engines, like DuckDuckGo.
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[1] Google’s new search redirects make links harder to check before you click
[2] Confirmed: Google Search Rolling Out google.com/goto Tracking Parameters
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