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Chrome 64 Now Trims Messy Links When You Share Them (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the rid-of-weird-things dept.

Google's latest consumer version of Chrome, version number 64, just started cleaning up messy referral links for you. From a report: Now, when you go to share an item, you'll no longer see a long tracking string after a link, just the primary link itself. This feature now happens automatically when sharing links in Chrome, either by the Share menu or by copying the link and pasting it elsewhere. Even though it slices off the extra bit of the URL, this doesn't affect referral information. If you choose, you can copy and paste directly from the URL bar to grab the link in entirety.

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. sloppy seconds, manicured by epine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have no problem with this feature under a "share" button, but plain-old copy and paste are not a tag-team synonym for sharing in any sane world.

    The PC revolution was largely built on determinism at scale: the same operation repeated (on your machine, or the next machine) achieves the same results. This was pretty new in the world in the late seventies. It's why we became able to build more complex distributed systems than ever before; it's how we ultimately carved our way out of spaghetti-code mountain.

    Now we take this boon for granted, and the pendulum continues to swing back toward infantilization.

    Now copy, too, is apparently on its way to sloppy seconds (the way of all things shared too much, howsoever assiduously groomed).

  2. Because replacing a URL is a great idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Absolutely nothing wrong can happen when someone else can randomly change the link to where you are trying to get.

    There is zero change that the link can be replaced to a fake location that looks like the original, but is nothing but a phishing website.

  3. Anyone else sick of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Google is orders of magnitude worse now than Microsoft ever was back when Microsoft was still relevant. Using their monopoly to extend their monopoly and break competition will eventually lead down the road to government intervention.

  4. Also ironic that Google cleaning up their own mess by bjdevil66 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Aren't a good percentage of the GET parameters floating around out there Google Analytics parameters (i.e. utm_campaign1, utm_a, etc.)? Aren't they just cleaning up their own company's mess?

    They should probably make this an optional feature that can be disabled.

    BTW - I think this proves that they're tracking everything people do in Chrome. How else could they roll out such a computer paradigm-breaking feature with such confidence (on by default)?