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All Google Search results are a redirect link like this: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=19&ved=0CHUQFjAIOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebapps.stackexchange.com%2F&ei=jNV0T4a0EYTw0gGkxsX_Ag&usg=AFQjCNFUKoDTez5xOnJZaRkn0OLZIclKtQ&sig2=siQi9Rk3h_zHwaNC2n_MMg

Why does Google do this?

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One of the reasons is so they can do click tracking on what link you clicked, on their search results page. This allows them to detect and optimize their search results.

For example if they noticed everyone that searches for "batman" only ever selects the 2, 3, 6, 7 links, they could remove the 1, 4, 5 links as they are obviously bad results for this search word.

Also you should take a look at Google's search history. I can tell you are logged in from this link and that your search history is being logged. This will give you a good indication of the information that Google collects when you click this link.

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    If it is a link on your site, you should already be able to see what they clicked to exit your site (in this case just happens to be google.com), right? What is the benefit of the long link vs a short link that they display anyway ?
    – kush
    Commented Oct 3, 2013 at 14:50
  • This is how Google searches you. It now not only knows what people are looking for, and where they are looking for it, but also what they are not finding.
    – Dagelf
    Commented Dec 11, 2014 at 9:09
  • Still, @kush is right. This makes absolutely no sense to me. If you sign out, you get normal links and still these people are tracked and google knows if links are clicked. There are JavaScript click, mousedown, mouseup events which all can be used to detect link usage.
    – Julian F. Weinert
    Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 6:25
  • @JulianF.Weinert This original question was asked ~5 years ago, I assume google as updated their methods in this time and now is using a combination of Javascript and Url links.
    – Steven Smethurst
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 16:43
  • Nah. It's still the same.
    – Julian F. Weinert
    Commented Aug 14, 2019 at 16:45
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This is a method which Google has been using to track what links their users click. When you click on that long link, Google knows it.

If you want to turn it off, see the answers to this question.

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  • Ever thought longer about that? You don't need a redirect to get these informations. So the question if still valid.
    – Julian F. Weinert
    Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 6:25

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