GoKawiilGoogle replaces plain result links with opaque goto redirects
Google Search has begun rewriting organic result links from readable URLs into a new google.com/goto?url= format that hides the actual destination inside an encoded, Google-specific parameter. Unlike the older google.com/url redirect wrapper, which kept the target link visible in plaintext, the new format requires a request back to Google's servers to retrieve the real URL from the Location header. As of late August 2026 this behavior appears consistently for logged-out and private browsing sessions, suggesting a wider rollout rather than a small test.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
This change directly targets automated scrapers and AI crawlers that harvest search result URLs in bulk to build their own indexes without repeatedly querying Google. By forcing every scraper to make an additional server round-trip per result just to learn a destination, Google raises the cost and complexity of large-scale SERP extraction. It signals an escalation in Google's effort to control how search data is consumed programmatically, likely pushing more scraping traffic toward official APIs or paid tools.
- Google now serves obfuscated google.com/goto links instead of direct destination URLs in search results.
- The new format cannot be decoded offline; scrapers must request the URL and read its Location header response.
- The move appears aimed at slowing bulk SERP scraping by AI crawlers and SEO tools that build indexes from Google's results.
Source: autom.dev, 2026-09-12
Published there as: “Google no longer provides direct URLs in search results”
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