Google Search looks like it’s rolling out the google.com/goto URL as a passthrough URL inside the search outcomes that it started testing in July 2026. This looks like a manner for Google to assist stop scraping of its search outcomes by third-party instruments and AI firms, however Google has not but commented on this goto URL parameter.
Here’s a screenshot of what I imply – as you’ll be able to see, once you mouse over a URL within the Google Search outcomes, you’ll be able to see Google is utilizing a goto URL parameter to take you to the positioning, versus taking you on to the URL of the web page.
Right here is the goto parameter passthrough:
Here’s what Google has usually completed:
Derek Perkins from Nozzle informed me on X that Google has been pushing this alteration reside and he sees it at “almost a 100% rollout throughout a number of residential ip suppliers.” He shared this chart exhibiting the spike in how a lot Google is utilizing this. This chart exhibiting the proportion of goto solely SERPs that Nozzle fetched during the last ~4 months of the take a look at:
Derek added, “Google has been testing anti-bot measures that get rid of all consumer facet hyperlinks in favor of google. com/goto… server facet redirects.” “The goto hyperlinks cannot be decoded, so suppliers must comply with the redirect hyperlinks. Whereas that works in small scale assessments, Google appears prone to make that robust, since every SERP can have tons of of hyperlinks to decode,” he added.
I’m seeing the brand new goto URL redirects now in a number of browsers I’m testing, so perhaps it’s rolling out.
I emailed Google to substantiate – so keep tuned.
Discussion board dialogue at X.
