Google Fixes Extended URL Broken Page Issue

Apr 26, 2006 - 7:37 am 0 by

Yesterday morning, a WebmasterWorld member reported on a Google bug, where Google would append '?sa=X' on some links. Appending that extra snippet lead to a page that was not existent on the server it referred the page to, hence taking the end user to a 404 page not found page.

You can see for yourself what Google adds to the URL by doing a search on gmail for example, and then mouse over the quick link named "New features!." That link looks like http://www.google.com/url?q=http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about_whatsnew.html&sa=X&oi=smap&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=2

It is a tracking feature for Google. Google has quickly fixed the issue by encoding the URLs.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 26, 2026

Feb 26, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Circle to Search Looks At The Whole Image

Feb 26, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads API Version 23.1 Now Available

Feb 26, 2026 - 7:41 am
Bing SEO

Microsoft Updates Bing Webmaster Guidelines (A Bit)

Feb 26, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google

Google To Test Showing Vertical Search Services In EU

Feb 26, 2026 - 7:21 am
Google Maps

Google Post Recurring Scheduling Coming

Feb 26, 2026 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Is Title Tag Placement in HTML Code Important?