Fixing Google's URL Masking

Sometimes, when searching, you really want to get a hold of the URL of one of the documents in the result set. Generally, the URL of a search on Google is displayed below the title and snippet of the result. However, it is not uncommon for the URL to be shortened in some way if it is too long, so that you can at least see the host name and the name of the file.

 

When this happens, however, you can't copy and paste the URL for use elsewhere. The link backing the title, which you click on in order to get to the document isn't actually the URL of the document, but a proxy that Google users to track which users click on what, so copying that URL won't get you the URL of the document either. The URL is in there, but encoded.

One way around this problem is to click on the 'similar' link. This will take you to a Google results page for which the query (found in the search box) is composed in part of the link you are after. You can then copy it from there.

 
Ideally, from a user perspective, Google would back the URL displayed in the results with the actualy URL. 

Comments

[Michał Tatarynowicz]

Or you could simply click-trough and copy the link from the address bar.

[Matthew Hurst]

Michal - I should have mentioned that in certain cases I don't want to click through (e.g. if the destination is a large file that I don't want to browse to, or if it is a resource like in this example which cannot be handled by the browser).

[johno]

I don't see any proxy link here. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=statistical+review+world+energy+2005&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

[parviziyi]

@johno: Sometimes the google search results page is full of proxy links, and sometimes it's full of straightfoward links. Google Search doesn't need to collect every single one of the billions of daily clicks to get the stats it wants. A large sample is sufficient.

[Trontsephore]

I might be missing something here but wouldn't it be easier to just right-click the link and copy link location? (or in IE 'copy shortcut').