Ever tried to copy a link from Google search results and ended up something messy looking like this:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.makeuseof.com%2F&ei=wSArUPj0E5Gu8QSd1IGYDg&usg=AFQjCNET_hI9VptfwU-R4oSaJjjI-f0jgA&cad=rja
The messiness is because Google changes the URL to help them track who is clicking on which links. That’s fine for Google, but it’s frustrating for people like me who want to save or share those links with others.
But there is good news – Makeuseof describes a couple of simple plugins/userscripts which you can install to solve this. I used the Google/Yandex search link fix for Firefox and it works beautifully.