About a week or two ago, I started noticing that I could no longer copy the clean links for search result hits on Google. I thought it was maybe some quirk of a browser I was using, but today when trying to copy a link to a Youtube video, I realized it was actually rolled out globally (it seems).
Basically instead of getting a
https://youtube/. com/watch?v=-ed6UeDp1ek link now through google, (spaced out link to avoid AutoMod)
you will get
https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAES<rest-of-encrypted-blob-containing--versionByte-keyID-cipherText>
The article describes the change in technical detail, and mentions a fix, but the author has kept it private for now so Google doesn't patch it up (like they probably will or have for this workaround relying on the "Translate Page" feature with a different Browser Language selection [Twitter Link, Aug 27]).
Why it will probably be patched:
Surprised there's no post about it here already.
Only Hackernews article I could find (4 days ago):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49506338
Edit: It seems to matter a lot whether your network is deemed "spammy" or problematic by Google for the encrypted URLs to kick in, even if you're logged out. Funnily enough my google searches went back to normal a few hours after I posted this. So a logged out session might get the regular, unencrypted links if your IP network has a good rating on Google's end. Mine often runs into captchas and the like, so it makes sense why I'd be targeted by this new change.
Then again, I just tested on my mobile cellular on a logged out search, and I still have the goto's. Can't really control that.
Kagi user for over two years now, can recommend if you’re not against paying for quality search.
Kagi is really good. I use Qwant because its free and somewhat close, but Kagi was really really good.
I'm against paying for search because I don't want my search history to be directly tied to my real name via my payment method. I don't care what their privacy policy says.
The future of search engines is in the settings. Allowing you to control how you search is the only weapon against the direction Google imagine we all should find stuff online.
Kagi is the only search engine who has embraced this and they get my money for it.
Startpage is another alternative if you use more than the free searches Kagi gives you. I usually reserve my Kagi searches for when other engines like Startpage, Qwant, DDG, etc. have failed me.