&rls= parameter

added when toolbar searching

[edit_g]

Once in a while when I do a search through the toolbar I get the following URL string:

[google.com...]

Is this something new? Does anybody know what the '&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-06,GGLD:' defines?

[sun818]

Was wondering the same thing. It was has to do with the Google Toolbar?

[balam]

This seems to have really taken off in the last few days. I don't use the toolbar, but I've seen all sorts of variations of the parameter. For example:

&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial
&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s
&rls=org.mozilla:nl-NL:official_s

&rls=DVXA,DVXA:2005-01,DVXA:en

&rls=GGLB,GGLB:1969-53,GGLB:en

&rls=GGLC,GGLC:1969-53,GGLC:en

&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2003-35,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2003-47,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2003-51,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2003-52,GGLD:en

&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-02,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-04,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-15%2CGGLD%3Aen
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-15,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-23%2CGGLD%3Aen
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-31,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-37,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-42,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-43,GGLD:en
&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-49,GGLD:en

&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-02,GGLD:en

&rls=RNWC,RNWC:2003-41,RNWC:en

&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-25,RNWE:en
&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-38,RNWE:en
&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-49,RNWE:en
&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2004-50,RNWE:en
&rls=RNWE,RNWE:2005-01,RNWE:en
&rls=RNWE%2CRNWE%3A2005-03%2CRNWE%3Aen

&rls=RNWI,RNWI:2004-49,RNWI:en
&rls=RNWI,RNWI:2005-01,RNWI:en

"GGLD" is by far the most "popular" value. FireFox visitors produced the first three. (The toolbar isn't available for FF, is it?) The visitor's language preference is indicated at the end (except for the FF visitors). Ignoring the ones that don't fit the pattern, that must be the year & week in there...

[balam]

Been looking into this a bit more...

For starters, I believe "rls" stands for "release," the version of the toolbar in use.

I also found this old thread [webmasterworld.com], but I don't think sidyadav's interpretation is correct, given some of the examples I presented above and the toolbar version info below.

I checked a machine here that does have the toolbar installed. The version of the toolbar is 2.0.114.9-big/en (GGLC) and searches via the toolbar on that machine have &rls=GGLC,GGLC:1969-53,GGLC:en in the URL.

While I haven't seen it my logs personally, I have seen "1970-01" as part of the URL. If it is some sort of timestamp, "1969-53" could/would/does equal "1970-01." "Unix time" began on January 1, 1970, didn't it?

Running on the assumption that it's a date, I haven't seen any dates between "1970-01" and "2003-32" (so far).

The toolbar was released in May, 2002. Perhaps this "date" in the URL is when the visitor installed the toolbar?