Google Search hides result links behind encoded redirects

Scraping Google Search results just got a lot more expensive.

Google is rewriting organic search links to google.com/goto?url=... instead of exposing the destination URL in plain HTML. The link parameter uses a custom, Google-specific encoding—not plain base64—that acts like an opaque reference to Google's internal index. According to scraper provider Autom, the format is now appearing consistently across logged-out and private browsing sessions.

Why it matters: Old scrapers could parse thousands of target URLs directly out of a single search page's HTML without touching Google again. Now, every result requires an extra request back to Google just to read the Location response header. That slows crawlers down and gives Google a clear signal to flag automated bots resolving links in bulk.

If you process search results, you do not need to follow the full redirect chain. Send a HEAD request to the google.com/goto link and pull the target URL directly from the Location header.

Google keeps tightening the screws on automated bots, one link rewrite at a time.