That wouldn’t work at all with this url format - the url can only be resolved by requesting the goto link.

I recommend reading more than the headline

> That wouldn’t work at all with this url format - the url can only be resolved by requesting the goto link.

What is "that" you say wouldn't work?

The extension can work fine by requesting every goto link upfront. As far as your google searches go, this is just as private as before.

I would recommend you avoid judging a comment because of a metric it neither said nor implied.

Previously the clear target URL of a search result was added to the result-link (or div?) as an additional data-tag (aria or whatever, can't remember), and thus was able to be used with a userscript or similar to replace the Googleified tracking redirect link. And it was also part of the googliefied tracking URL, either way you were able to see the clear target URL.

That no longer is possible, you must ask google.com for consent to visit the result link before seeing what the final target URL is.

But the extension doesn't need to use that exact mechanism, and the person that linked it didn't mention specific mechanisms. The purpose of the extension is putting the real URLs back, and it can still do that.

And it can still prevent google from knowing which search results you click on, even though OP didn't mention that feature.

You can read the extension source, and description. It is obvious that what it does is strip url parameters and decode well known google encodings.

I said it can use a different mechanism. Why would I want to read the code for more details on the current mechanism?

If my mom had wheels she’d be a bicycle. The thread started with an offhand mention of an extension that doesn’t address the issue raised in the post and is in fact currently defeated by link redirects entirely.

We’ve had redirecting trackers like bit.ly for over a decade and the extension didn’t address it then.

But don't say "that wouldn't work" when you actually mean "it needs an update". It works on the old Google method, so even if it doesn't follow redirects on other sites, it could easily follow them on Google.

It's not your mom being a bike, it's a bike with flat tires being a bike.

I bet the reason it doesn't do redirects right now is that the situations you find redirects in have usually been places where investigating them loses privacy. But if these were fresh links already personal to your search, checking all the redirects is fully private.

> But the extension doesn't need to use that exact mechanism

How do you figure? How else could it possibly work now?

I said that in my first comment.

You do a google search. The extension resolves every link on the page immediately via the goto urls. This doesn't leak any information to google because they obviously know which links they sent you. Now the links are resolved and you can copy and click them and get clean URLs, without sending any information about which ones you're copying or clicking.

Isn't that the same mechanism as the one you were saying it didn't need to use, though?

> Isn't that the same mechanism as the one you were saying it didn't need to use, though?

In my second comment?

I was replying to a detailed explanation of the old mechanism that ended with "that is no longer possible", so I said "it doesn't need to use that exact mechanism" referring to the old mechanism.

It needs to update to the new way things work. But that's fine. An extension that performs the same task is still fully possible.

I decided to verify the article's claims, forgetting that I had ClearURLs installed, and ClearURLs does not handle this new format.

The article also suggests that it cannot be decoded.

The reason this change is so bad is that it encrypts the actual URL, specifically to break addons like that.

Even if someone builds a brand, it can get sold and (atleast this twas true last time I checked) the Amazon reviews get grandfathered in.

We used to develop AI to convince us its human (turing test). The future is about convincing AI/Automated Systems that you're - competent (hiring), not a bot (anti-spam), doing your job (KPIs), not a threat (ala social score, AI powered weapons targeting), worthy of being saved (insurance claims), etc, etc.

Whether or not humans break from those shackles, I for one, am hoping Hollywood supplies us with wonderfully dystopian sci-fi entertainment for years to come.

Chrome may be an excellent browser, but the venn diagram overlap with malware keeps getting larger.

Is it excellent? It feels more to me that the competition does not really exist - or just sucks. And then people largely gave up, letting the adMoney take over everything.

I abandoned firefox when a mozilla dev claimed Linux users can only listen to audio via systemd+pulseaudio (unless you recompile firefox but who in his sane mind wants to use mozconfig in 2026 - https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/svn/xsoft/firefox...). On adChromium, audio on youtube videos (also owned by Google) works fine, without me having to change anything. And older firefox versions also worked fine. At that moment in time I realised that firefox was no longer about the people. I stopped using it and I seem to not have been the only one who got frustrated with mozilla.

What sane person use non systemd Linux? I kid, of course and thank you for your service in keeping the linux ecosystem honest in terms of reducing systemd’s hegemony and everything but this cannot be a problem you are not used to running into.

Firefox is amazing

I don't use pulseaudio and audio works fine. (I use pipeware)

Pipewire just works without needing the awfulness of pulseaudio, but there's also "apulse" to shim directly to alsa if you want more like the older behavior. But Pipewire is far more compatible and modern.

You should fork Firefox and make an alsa version.

how does it need systemd? also, you could continue using alsa using the wrapper, or you could use pipewire

Hopefully the way for the United States to compete with China isn't to be more like them.

I see, looks like you found something to aspire to. Good job!

Oh no, exceptional compound growth! The sadness!

Yeah.. America started declining after when they allowed non-whites to immigrate. Worst economy ever starting 1965. No golden era nothing.

Go look at the people doing the science & research in universities at post-doc minimum wage salary. Maybe just say thank you, and go on about your day.

Right.. Microsoft, Google, Amazon filled with mediocre Indians writing mediocre code and about to go out of business any minute now. Oh wait, how does reality work again?