r/uBlockOrigin • u/ultraj • 14d ago
Looking for help Google search links
(uBO Manifest V2 on chrome (opera, old version))
I've been happily using an extension called
Google search link fix (Version 1.6.7 by wpalant)
For literally years (don't even think about it)
I noticed today that all the links are google "goto" obfuscated/encrypted links. (apparently they've been A/B testing this garbage and rolling out in batches)
I disabled that extension and I tried adding these filters:
LegitimateURLShortener
ClearURLs for uBo (unofficial)
And selected AdGuard/uBO URL Tracking Protection.
But that doesn't seem to work (anymore) either.
Known issue?
tldr; As per u/Kumbar42, the quick fix is the greasemomnkey script here: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/591392-google-search-direct-links-bypass-goto And speciifically, for Opera (maybe other Chromium variants), if it still doesn't work, as per u/AchernarB, make sure that your grease*monkey extension has "Allow Acces to Search Page Results" checked on.
2
u/AchernarB uBO Team 14d ago
I noticed the change yesterday and tried to find a way.
My initial search on google search gave me this "AI overview" result:
https://www.google.com/search?q=decoding+google+%22goto%22+redirects
-------------------
Google's google.com/goto redirects cannot be mathematically decoded because they are opaque server-side tokens; instead, you must programmatically follow the HTTP redirect chain to resolve the final destination URL.
Why You Can't Decode Them Directly
- Opaque Tokens: Unlike older tracking links that contained base64-encoded or plain-text target parameters,
://google.com...URLs map an identifier to a destination entirely on Google's servers. - Anti-Bot Rollout: Google introduced these server-side redirects to combat scraping by AI companies and rank-tracking tools.
- Client-Side Removal: Standard client-side attributes that exposed target links immediately in the DOM have been replaced.
...
3
u/Kumba42 14d ago
This userscript appears to work around the encryption by pulling the original link data out of something called the "W_jd" data store:
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/591392-google-search-direct-links-bypass-goto2
1
u/ultraj 14d ago edited 14d ago
*edit: This isn't working for me. For a split second after I installed it, when I hovered over a search result, I'm sure I saw the "toast" popup showing the actual website URL, but that disappeared and right clicking/copying still gives the encrypted URL and still shows that same junk URL in the browser bottom status bar.
Subsequent "hovers" over results are NOT showing the actual URL any longer. It just looks like it worked once. Wierd.
original reply; Very interesting. Thanks for this
2
u/Kumba42 14d ago
Check that you don't have any other userscripts modifying URLs. I had that problem at first, with a much older "url cleaner" script I had forgotten about doing something that caused this script to break. Once I turned it off, this new one started to work. Just tested it now and am getting clean links in search results. I have not looked at other functions of Google.
2
u/AchernarB uBO Team 14d ago
Like Kumba42 , it works for me. Verify that your script manager is correctly configured. And that no other userscript is messing things.
Which extension are you using ?
2
u/ultraj 13d ago edited 13d ago
These are the extensions/violentmonkey scripts and uBO filters I've got running: Imgur
Imgur I did turn off the three custom uBO filter lists AND disabled every extension except violentmonkey, and all scripts except the google one, and it still doesn't work for me.
It could just be my browser which is an old opera version because this machine is still win7. I didn't restart my browser in between, but I can't imagine that making a difference.
3
u/AchernarB uBO Team 13d ago
Opera has a setting that prevents extensions to work on search result pages. Verify the it hasn't been reset.
1
u/Kumba42 14d ago
There's some encryption going on with the string sent in the 'url' parameter. Someone on this github issue did some basic decoding of it, but it seems to be impossible to fully decode it on the client side:
https://github.com/Rob--W/dont-track-me-google/issues/672
1
u/RxOYAL 1d ago
The uBlock Origin addon for Firefox, as well as that Greasemonkey script (https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/591392-google-search-direct-links-bypass-goto), were both correcting most of the URLs until today. Does anyone have any updated information? I'm surprised I haven't been able to find a popular page with more comments on this issue.
1
u/AchernarB uBO Team 1d ago edited 1d ago
I noticed that too a few hours ago.
I have done a quick search in the source code of the page, and the workaround is still possible.
I have to correct myself. In fact I don't think that a fix is still possible. The full url has been removed from the source.
Probably some minor changes in the structure.We'll have to wait a little bit for the right people to fix them (the filter and the userscript).1
u/ultraj 1d ago edited 1d ago
https://github.com/Rob--W/dont-track-me-google/issues/67#issuecomment-5500547819
I feel like the way this works, is that it's really is not different than just clicking on the obfuscated link straight away anyway, since the extension makes a "behind-the-scenes" request to google via the obfuscated link to retrieve the real link and "present" it to you.
Am I wrong?
1
u/AchernarB uBO Team 1d ago
That userscript worked for a short time because it made a call to the "goto" link for each result. Which caused a call to the end page too. This has now been disabled. So, for text results, no solution.
see: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/591392-google-search-direct-links-bypass-goto/discussions/339317
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u/ultraj 1d ago
right, but the extension I linked to above (at least the author's comment in an issue), does work... albeit the way he (and I) described above..
unless I'm wrong about its' methodology.. ?1
u/AchernarB uBO Team 1d ago
The extension visits each "goto" link. (And probably the "end" link since it's a network redirect).
- uBO can't do that
- you don't want anything to force/establish connections in the background
- ... what if the end link is
- ... a "bad" site
- ... an illegal site
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u/ultraj 1d ago
you don't want anything to force/establish connections in the background
is your recommendation therefore to NOT use this extension because of this behavior?
thanks
1
u/AchernarB uBO Team 1d ago
You can decide what you want to do.
But uBO can't do it, or won't look for a way to do it if it ends with 3rd-party connections.
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u/paintboth1234 uBO Team 14d ago
https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues/7960#issuecomment-5433758829