• •Hacker News users report Google replacing standard '/url?q=' redirect links with opaque '/goto?url=' structures
• •Testing appears intermittent, affecting logged-out private browsing sessions over the past two months
• •It remains unclear if this change is a permanent architectural pivot or a limited experiment to obfuscate referral data

Google has begun testing opaque redirect URLs in search results, replacing legacy link structures with '/goto?url=' parameters. This shift follows years of standardizing search redirects that previously exposed the destination URL within the browser's address bar. While the move could improve privacy, it introduces friction for users who rely on direct link inspection or web scraping tools to verify destinations. Whether this becomes the default behavior for all queries remains to be seen as the company continues its A/B testing phase.