Supplementals in the SERP are using redirects - tracking purposes?

[gibbergibber]

Maybe I'm being stupid here, but has anyone else noticed that supplemental results in Google are now redirect links with a google.com url wrapped round them?

Try looking for a supplemental result from a search, and when you mouseover it it looks normal. Then try right clicking on it, and you should see the true URL that the result points to.

What is this for? Are they trying to see which links should be lifted out of supplemental status, depending on how many unique visitors click on them?

[chazeo]

I noticed this as well. Your theory sounds interesting. By tracking click-throughs from SERP results, they might find that the page in question deserves back into the main index.

[Halfdeck]

They have trackers on non-supplemental pages too.

[bigmelon]

Didn't see that phenomena yet.

[gibbergibber]

-- They have trackers on non-supplemental pages too. --

I couldn't see any google url on the non-supplemental results, right clicking just gave the same url that a mouseover did.

Are you seeing different results to me, or is this some other method apart from redirects?

[tedster]

All the click-tracking that I've seen Google do on the SERPs seems to be short term -- and just for a sampling of end-users, even during the time period when they are gathering the data. It's hard to reproduce predictably for several users.

[gibbergibber]

--All the click-tracking that I've seen Google do on the SERPs seems to be short term -- and just for a sampling of end-users, even during the time period when they are gathering the data. It's hard to reproduce predictably for several users. --

Interesting... But why would they only track supplemental results?

[webastronaut]

They have trackers on non-supplemental pages too!

I don't know Halfdeck but listen to him! He is SO RIGHT!

[tedster]

I've never seen a SERP where only the Supplemental Result has a click tracking redirect. Either every result on the whole page is being tracked, or none of them. I'll keep a lookout for this, however.

Let's limit this thread to the specific topic of the redirects that track clicks on the Supplement results. We've got another active thread where we can discuss current changes in the way the Supplemental Index is working [webmasterworld.com].

[webastronaut]

Very short term... as of today I do not see them on the same suppl.. as I saw yesterday?

[webastronaut]

Forgot to add that the sites that I noticed yesterday that are not suppl.. with a redirect are not there today? Googleguy? They are also past the -950 in omitted results at the end?