[plug] Google web search sanitiser

[Brad Campbell]

On 21/10/12 23:23, Nick Bannon wrote:

> Simple Google search results used to use a tracking URL _occasionally_,
> random sampling to get some idea of when otherwise anonymous users chose
> a particular outgoing search result. At some recent stage they turned
> it on pervasively.
>
> Meaning that one can't simply copy and paste a working URL out of
> a search result anymore. It adds extra lag to every click on such a
> result, perhaps over a slow UMTS link. I can't believe it improves the
> results they got from occasional sampling that much. It's not even a
> HTTP redirect, it replaces a simple static link with a JavaScript HTML
> file that does the redirect. (!)
>
> <script>window.googleJavaScriptRedirect=1</script><script>var
> f={};f.navigateTo=function(b,a,g){if(b!=a&&b.google){if(b.google.r){b.google.r=0;b.location.href=g;a.location.replace("about:blank");}}else{a.location.replace(g);}};f.navigateTo(window.parent,window,"http://razzed.com/2009/02/12/analysis-of-google-outbound-link-tracking/");
> </script><noscript><META http-equiv="refresh"
> content="0;URL='http://razzed.com/2009/02/12/analysis-of-google-outbound-link-tracking/'"></noscript>
>
> Madness.
>
> Nick.
>

Interestingly enough when you mouse over the results, you get the 
correct url in the status bar. Its the trickery they play when you hit a 
mouse button that is causing the issue. I pulled apart the firefox 
plugins xpi that I'm using and it simply removes the 'onmousedown' 
handler from each link. Nice and very simple. Works a treat.

Now I must need to figure out how to do that in squid before the html 
hits the browser.

On the same note, I've been looking at alternate search engines that 
promote no tracking and privacy. duckduckgo and ixquick. Anyone else 
using alternate search engines?