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

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Gvolatility, Bing Generative Search, Reddit Blocks Bing, Sticky Cookies, AI Overview Ads & SearchGPT - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 26, 2024

Jul 26, 2024 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Google Volatility, Bing Generative Search, Reddit Blocks Bing, Sticky Cookies, AI Overview Ads & SearchGPT

Jul 26, 2024 - 8:01 am
Google

Google Gemini Adds Related Content & Verification Links

Jul 26, 2024 - 7:51 am
Other Search Engines

SearchGPT - OpenAI's AI Search Tool

Jul 26, 2024 - 7:41 am
Search Engine Optimization

Google's John Mueller: Don't Use LLMs For SEO Advice

Jul 26, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Search With Related Images Carousel Below Image Box

Jul 26, 2024 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Is Title Tag Placement in HTML Code Important?