I was a total idiot recently, wondering why my dashboard comments pane looked weird, until Fluff pointed out there was a long URL in it. (If I’d just taken care of the comment instead of sticking it on my To Do list, this would not have been a problem)!
But it illustrates an annoying problem about Google search results. Long ago, when you searched for something on Google, the Google search result page gave you the actual link of each search result. Nowadays, it throws a bunch of invisible gobbledygook into the link.
For example, if you search for “Nessie Heinrich Harder” (the name of an artist who did a painting of Nessie), you get:
The Loch Ness Monster: Nessie
www.proof-of-evolution.com/loch-ness-monster.html- Cached
Is Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, really a plesiosaur trapped in a giant … A plesiosaur drawn by Heinrich Harder in 1916. The weight and anatomy of a …
Well, there we go. Want to share that link? You’d think you’d just right-click the clickable link, right? The part that’s underlined.
WRONG! If you do that, the URL copied to your clipboard is a monster:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.proof-of-evolution.com%2Floch-ness-monster.html&ei=sEojTsnVKMrc0QG45cnEAw&usg=AFQjCNHQAvPvGAL91lnFlD5fWh06KB21Dw
Ugh. Google, why? Okay, yes, I know why. You want to track every use of Google, and possible getting people to go to Google, not bypass you. But tough. I don’t wanna share that huge long link! I want the URL!
One could copy and paste the link written out under the page title:
www.proof-of-evolution.com/loch-ness-monster.html
But on Google’s listing it (a) isn’t a link, so you can’t right-click it to grab it and (b) is missing http:// at the beginning.
So, either you have to put the http:// back in, or you click on the link, GO to the webpage, and grab its real URL from this location bar. This is a good idea in case there’s a redirect. Also, you should probably not share a link without checking the page yourself to make sure it’s kosher. You never know when a page will have a horribly annoying popup or other problem your readers may not appreciate.
This is something I’ve been irked by many times. Another gripe has to go with Google reader. When I click over to a post from Reader, the link has some ugly feedburner mumbo jumbo at the end. I have to delete all of that to get a clean link. I really wish it would redirect and not have all that muck.