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I'm looking for a Safari extension that can rewrite the google search results so that it gives you the direct URLs rather than the long jumbled redirect links that often pop up.

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, Google often (but not always) gives you the results with redirect URLs like this: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fextensions.apple.com%2F&ei=56lZTvqqCNP-sQKKzoGZDA&usg=AFQjCNG8RJkKTqQOF1SSdxFTGI4J6iArug which make it a pain when trying to share/copy&paste a link, not to mention whatever additional tracking nonsense goes on behind the scenes.

It's definitely possible, as there seem to be some Greasemonkey scripts available for Firefox, but I haven't been able to find any Safari extensions that do this so far.

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  • I swear I already saw this exact extension. I've searched for it 15 min without luck however.
    – gcamp
    Aug 28, 2011 at 3:02

4 Answers 4

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Here's the extension you're looking for:

http://pedrocc.com/safari

It's called Disable ClickTracker by Pedro Campelo Cavalcanti.

"Disable ClickTracker" removes click tracking on the initial page load. It will not work for people using Google Instant Search.

The only extension that handles both regular and Google Instant results is the new gDirectLinks.

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    It's worth noting that while the extension does work well most of the time, it can be broken by Google's live search feature. I suspect this is because the extension only performs its function on a fresh page reload. Because the live updating doesn't refresh the page, it can't fix the URLs when you use Google Live (either from Google.com or editing a search). It works fine on searches from the Safari search bar, or if you have Google Live turned off.
    – robmathers
    Aug 28, 2011 at 16:56
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    pedrocc.com now has a different owner, and it's showing spam.
    – rraallvv
    Sep 19, 2018 at 12:47
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Canisbos has released another extension called gDirectLinks, which is a more efficient subset of LinkThing focused solely on the task of removing the hidden redirects from Google's links. It handles both regular Google search and the more modern Google Instant search (AJAX; most people are using that version these days without knowing it, as it's on by default). It also has the option of re-writing Google Images results to point directly to the image.

It's very important to note that gDirectLinks (and its big brother, LinkThing) is the only extension of its kind that properly handles Google Instant results.

More information is available at the official website. Enjoy!

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    Strange how they say in Safari 5.2 Apple fixed this annoyance in Hsitory, but I'm on 6.0 and all the pages in History have the horrible URLs still. But thank you so much for this answer, it makes Safari's history actually useable...
    – Jonathan.
    Feb 20, 2013 at 12:10
  • I am glad it helped you. We should both be grateful to Canisbos. He created this extension after a long discussion with me and I can't imagine using Google without it. :)
    – DELETEDACC
    Feb 25, 2013 at 23:39
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    It seems gDirectLinks is no longer available from Canisbos' site. Also Safari won't allow to install unsigned extension since version 12.0
    – rraallvv
    Sep 19, 2018 at 12:44
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Clean Links for Google is another Safari extension that removes Google's redirects. Seems to work on Safari 10, and handles Google Instant. For those that are interested, here is the source code.

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  • This seems to be the only option available for Safari v12.0 and above. Although I'd love to be proved wrong ;)
    – rraallvv
    Sep 19, 2018 at 12:52
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I know this question is old but I found it trying to find an extension I had used on another machine (which no one else mentioned).

Safari History Washer is what I was looking for, incase it helps anyone else.

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