Google Hides URLs in Search Results

Google Search has started rewriting organic result links to use a 'goto' format, redirecting users to the real page instead of exposing the destination URL directly. This change is currently consistent across searches when users are logged out or browsing in private mode, as of late August 2026.

The new 'goto' format is different from the older google.com/url?q=[URL-encoded destination] format, which used a readable query string to encode the target link. In contrast, the 'goto' format uses a custom, Google-specific encoding that is not plain base64 of the target URL.

Google is making this change to combat automated SERP harvesting, especially from AI crawlers and SEO scrapers that bulk-extract result URLs to build their own indexes. The 'goto' format requires a request back to Google to learn the destination URL, making it slower and noisier for scrapers.

The real URL is still accessible, but it requires an extra step. The Location header on the 'goto' page contains the real URL, which can be accessed by requesting the URL and not following the redirect.

## Why it matters This change matters for anyone building a search index from SERP data at scale. With plaintext links, a scraper could parse thousands of URLs from HTML without touching Google again. With 'goto', each result needs a request back to Google just to learn the destination. This makes it more difficult for automated tools to harvest URLs, which is a key part of Google's broader push against automated SERP harvesting.

The shift to 'goto' format is a significant change in how Google presents search results, and it highlights the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between Google and automated tools that seek to exploit its search data. As Google continues to evolve its search results, it's likely that we'll see more changes aimed at preventing automated harvesting and promoting a better user experience.