Google has begun sending some links in its search results through google.com/goto?url= redirects, a change that means the address shown when a reader hovers over a result is no longer the site they will land on. Instead of a readable destination, the url parameter carries a custom Google-specific encoding that only resolves once the link is followed. Google confirmed the rollout to Search Engine Roundtable, though the company has not said which abuse problem the change is meant to address.
The practical effect is that a link preview stops working as an independent way to check where a click will lead. Google still displays the claimed destination above each result, so the visible label is unchanged, but the underlying address now points at Google rather than the publisher. Malwarebytes said the rollout had not yet reached the area where its writer is based.
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According to the report, the likely aim is to raise the cost of extracting URLs in bulk. Automated tools that previously read destinations straight from a results page now have to ask Google to resolve each result one at a time, and the destination only becomes visible through the redirect's Location header. That extra request per result is the friction the change introduces.
The collateral damage falls on legitimate services as well, according to users cited in the report. Rank tracking, SEO auditing, research, archival work, accessibility tools, and alternate-index services could all be caught by the limits and costs meant for abusive scrapers, according to Malwarebytes. Reddit users described in its post called the move ironic given Google's own history of collecting information from other sites.
Google defended the change in a statement: "We have a long history of deploying technical measures against evolving forms of abuse, and we regularly take steps to protect our services and users." The company did not tie the redirects to a specific abuse category.
The redirects sit alongside Google's recent efforts to push traffic toward publishers rather than away from them. In May, the company embedded AI Mode and AI Overviews citations inline, highlighting subscription links and naming the creator, handle, or community behind an answer. Chrome also added a split-screen view for links opened from AI Mode, initially for users in the United States.
Google framed the May changes as a push to send more visitors to publishers, while the new redirects make a result's destination harder to check before a click.
