New Link Format in Google results?

Google Link Format

[elklabone]

Looks like google is no longer offering direct links to sites in results, but rather a link that apparently "redirects" to the site... looks like this:

[google.com...]

Anyone else notice this? You might have to turn your browser's "status bar" on to see this. I assume Google is wanting to "track" clicks based on search term...?

Anyone else seeing this?

--Mark

[Marcia]

We've had some posts on this and it's not easy for everyone to catch. They've done it occasionally, but not all the time. It'll be good to keep track and see if it becomes a continuing thing.

If it were to continue, it might be even more important to be careful about good titles and how the descriptions/snippets look.

[takagi]

We normally don't track redirects on urls because it slows users down. That data is useful though, so we sometimes do random sampling to make sure that our quality is still high.

GoogleGuy in the thread: Redirect urls on Google SERPS [webmasterworld.com]

Some other related threads:

2000
Google is now counting clicks [webmasterworld.com]

2001
Google re-directs [webmasterworld.com]

Google adding click through [webmasterworld.com]

Google tracking click pop? [webmasterworld.com]

Google Traffic Tracking [webmasterworld.com]

Click Pop on Google [webmasterworld.com]

2002
Redirect urls on Google SERPS [webmasterworld.com]

Google Recording Clickthroughs [webmasterworld.com]

2003
Direct URL's gone!? [webmasterworld.com]

Google: Please get rid of these annoying redirects. [webmasterworld.com]

Redirects? [webmasterworld.com]

Does Google measures the clickthrough from the Google results [webmasterworld.com]

Unusual additions to URL in SERPs [webmasterworld.com]

Google Tracking Clickthroughs [webmasterworld.com]

[thewebboy]

Yes, I noticed it too but shortly after it returned to normal links.

[chengfu]

I've been getting tracked results and newly styled adwords at work for about a week. My pc's at home all show normal results.
Perhaps they randomly select users to get those results and store it inside the preferences cookie?

[PCInk]

Some keywords seem to always have redirects. Perhaps they sell the market research data to some large corporations?

No specifics, but I think a major electrical company once seemed to have redirects on the products they sold. I think it was Sony, but that was jumping to conclusions and it may have had nothing to do with them, but the redirects continued for months.