[archgoon]

Why, you didn't actually think that the links that Google displayed were actually _links_ to the websites did you? ;)

For a variety of reasons, the links that Google displays when you perform a search first redirect you to their servers, and then they redirect you to the site.

For example, here's the link for "sluggy.com" obtained from the search "sluggy"

    https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sluggy.com%2F&ei=7PziVMTAL8rroAS3xoGYBg&usg=AFQjCNFqb4P18q_i2jlYMUeBe1vo-1j_Hw&sig2=g4mQfqQ6NB1twrtQ5Vq7Ng

As you can see, the original url is in that, along with some metadata. 'usg' seems to be consistent across searches, so it probably ties back to me, or at least my browser's USeraGent. 'ei' is inconsistent across searches, so it's probably a per search token, which will presumably allow google to track the spread of this link, and prevent abuse. sig2 is likely the signature of the whole thing (and thus also changes from search to search).

* Disclaimer: I do not work for Google, and knowledgeable engineers there are probably laughing at the poor dweeb on the internet who thinks he knows more about their infrastructure than they do. ;)