Ask HN: Why are Google search result URLs so ugly?

13 pointshammock3 comments

I have always heard around here and elsewhere that best practice is to use human-readable URLs, and that with today's tools it's really not necessary to do otherwise.

Yet when I right-click and copy a link from a Google search results page (e.g. to share an article with someone), I get something that looks like below. This despite displaying a (abridged) human-readable URL on the page itself. Why?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB8QFjAAahUKEwiQ9arirKbHAhUJ_IAKHaxdAhQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhbr.org%2F2008%2F07%2Femployee-motivation-a-powerful-new-model&ei=cLTMVZD9Ion4gwSsu4mgAQ&usg=AFQjCNFvsdgJlMw6Xc6vWMoX6hjTwsHU9w&sig2=RHlWUOJ95bb3wDBW45zABw&bvm=bv.99804247,d.eXY

View on HN

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t& rct=j& q=& esrc=s& source=web& cd=1& cad=rja& uact=8& ved=0CB8QFjAAahUKEwiQ9arirKbHAhUJ_IAKHaxdAhQ& url=https%3A%2F%2Fhbr.org%2F2008%2F07%2Femployee-motivation-a-powerful-new-model& ei=cLTMVZD9Ion4gwSsu4mgAQ& usg=AFQjCNFvsdgJlMw6Xc6vWMoX6hjTwsHU9w& sig2=RHlWUOJ95bb3wDBW45zABw& bvm=bv.99804247,d.eXY