Google Direct

• NAME
• INSTALLATION
• DESCRIPTION
  • Why?
  • Screenshots
    • Before (Intercepted Link)
    • After (Direct Link)
• COMPATIBILITY
• CREDITS
• SEE ALSO
• VERSION
• AUTHORS
• LICENSE

NAME

Google Direct - remove tracking links from Google Search results

INSTALLATION

• AMO

DESCRIPTION

This is a Firefox addon which removes tracking from Google Search results by disabling the JavaScript function which rewrites links when clicked.

Why?

There are many addons which do this, but most do so by detecting links, disabling their event handlers, and restoring their URLs, which can be fragile and fiddly. Typically these addons are dozens or even hundreds of lines long and have to be updated each time the HTML changes.

By contrast, this addon just disables the window.rwt function which is used to hijack external links, so the implementation is much simpler (effectively just a single line) and the protection is much more reliable as the same tracking technique has been used unchanged for years.

Screenshots

Before (Intercepted Link)

After (Direct Link)

COMPATIBILITY

• Firefox 57+ (Desktop)

CREDITS

This addon is a fork/rewrite of Avoid Google Search redirects by Adrien Dorsaz, which no longer works, and that addon is a Firefox version of the Chrome addon, Remove Google Redirect in Google Results by hq6.

SEE ALSO

• anti_rwt - a Web Extension which uses the same technique as this addon (not on AMO)
• DeGoogle For Chrome - the original inspiration for Avoid Google Search redirects (Chrome Web Store version)
  • DeGoogle For Firefox - Firefox version (no longer available on AMO)
• google-redirect-rewrite-remove - uses the same technique as this add-on, but in a less robust way

VERSION

1.0.0

AUTHORS

• Adrien Dorsaz (original version)
• chocolateboy

LICENSE

This addon is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL.