Page 1 of 17

Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-29, 15:33
by moonbat
Just added this extension, it's a port of an abandoned one for Firefox and transparently strips tracking and other parameters from URLs. Please try it and post your feedback :)

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-29, 16:39
by Goodydino
Google search results are still redirected through Google.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-29, 18:37
by therube
(I now get a 404 when I try to go to google, so it's working on my end - jk ;-).)


(In PM 26) something does seem to be off.

URL (shortened to remove, crap): https://www.google.com/search?source=hp ... ncmain.exe

If I hoover a URL, take the second, "Index of /~phil/hardware/vertex/sharemegsvertex/lcu/pcr/norton", it displays cleanly.

If I right-click (context-menu) the link it turns ugly.

Code: Select all

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi6lOjL26jkAhVwvlkKHWTBAO4QFjABegQIBhAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.naic.edu%2F~phil%2Fhardware%2Fvertex%2Fsharemegsvertex%2Flcu%2Fpcr%2Fnorton%2F&usg=AOvVaw0UUUOCEG7ww00MlzMgxSU6

Now what happens with an actual click - after initial page load, or after right-click context-menu change what is displayed, not sure?


(In SeaMonkey) I'm getting an ugly URL as the referrer, regardless of whether I simply left-click (the clean looking URL) or right-click context-menu, then left-click the URL.

Referrer, something along these lines:

Code: Select all

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=2ahUKEwiki9i83ajkAhWFq1kKHRiLCv0QFjADegQICBAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.softpanorama.org%2FOFM%2FNC%2Findex.shtml&usg=AOvVaw1tSvTG6IUer9l3S-et8RZB

Given (Pure URL)'s age, not sure if it is expected to handle current google trickery?
ref: https://www.ghacks.net/2016/02/07/pure- ... arameters/

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-29, 19:05
by Lootyhoof
It's probably because the garbage in the Google URLs isn't included in the extension's "garbage fields list" (editable by the user in the preferences). If it's desired it would need to be added into the extension itself to make it a default; looks like that's setup here.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-29, 19:36
by New Tobin Paradigm
It's too bad that this is a jetpack extension. That means it will never be compatible with Borealis Navigator... That is such a shame.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-29, 20:04
by karlkracher
https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21309

Google is very special they want to know every click you do.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-30, 02:43
by Zero3K
Is it possible to have https://www.google.com/url?q=&url=https ... est.net%2F to just point to the URL that is being redirected to?

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-30, 03:52
by moonbat
Zero3K wrote:
2019-08-30, 02:43
Is it possible to have https://www.google.com/url?q=&url=https ... est.net%2F to just point to the URL that is being redirected to?
In this example, the actual target URL has been URL encoded because the search result points to Google first. Pure URL merely strips unwanted parameters from links, it doesn't rewrite existing links as would be required for Google's case. Pure URL is best for regular browsing or for links shared from Facebook where these parameters are tacked on.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-30, 11:59
by nicolaasjan
Thank you very much for this fork! :D

Here it works as intended, but I had to manually add the notorious ved parameter, showing up for me when using Google images.

Code: Select all

ved, amp,utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content, utm_campaign, utm_reader, utm_place, ga_source, ga_medium, ga_term, ga_content, ga_campaign, ga_place, yclid, _openstat, feature@youtube.com, fb_action_ids, fb_action_types, fb_ref, fb_source, action_object_map, action_type_map, action_ref_map, ref@facebook.com, fref@facebook.com, hc_location@facebook.com, ref_@imdb.com, src@addons.mozilla.org, fbclid@facebook.com, sdsrc, c, ref, trk, __tn__, cid, from, pfmredir, igshid
Just do a search for google "ved parameter"; it is related with Google Analytics...
First result:
https://moz.com/blog/inside-googles-ved-parameter

Later I also added the ei or sei parameters showing up sometimes.
They can be translated to a Unix timestamp and is often used in digital forensics.... You can therefore use a Python script I found via http://cheeky4n6monkey.blogspot.com/2014/10/google-eid.html
So a ei value of I_RoXeGAK9HxkwWXnIv4CA gives:

Code: Select all

python google-ei-time.py -e I_RoXeGAK9HxkwWXnIv4CA
Running google-ei-time.py v2014-10-10

Input ei term = I_RoXeGAK9HxkwWXnIv4CA
Padded base64 string = I_RoXeGAK9HxkwWXnIv4CA==
Extracted timestamp = 1567159331
Human readable timestamp (UTC) = 2019-08-30T10:02:11
Maybe you can investigate as well and add them to the extension if they don't break something.
[Edit]: These break YouTube (video's don't play)... :problem:
So I had to remove these again.
In my case however they don't give issues when implemented like this:

Code: Select all

ei@google.nl, ei@google.com, sei@google.nl, sei@google.com
This is not very practical.
And as the extension Neat URL has implemented it with wildcards:

Code: Select all

ei@google.*, sei@google.*
Has no effect with Pure URL.


I added the gs_l parameter (geolocation) as well.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-08-31, 18:26
by back2themoon
Thank you for Pure URL :thumbup:

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-01, 01:18
by moonbat
nicolaasjan wrote:
2019-08-30, 11:59
Thank you very much for this fork! :D
back2themoon wrote:
2019-08-31, 18:26
Thank you for Pure URL :thumbup:
Glad you liked it :)
nicolaasjan, I have updated it to 1.1 and added the parameters you mentioned :thumbup:

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-04, 12:40
by hujan86
I've been testing this extension on FB for a few days. So far it only managed to remove the fbclid parameter from TweakTown's, TechPowerUp's & Tom's Hardware's links. Also, AnandTech posted their links via Dlvr.it shortener. The extension successfully removed the fbclid parameter from AnandTech's links but failed to do the same for PCGamer's links (via buff.ly)

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-04, 13:17
by moonbat
hujan86 wrote:
2019-09-04, 12:40
I've been testing this extension on FB for a few days. So far it only managed to remove the fbclid parameter from TweakTown's, TechPowerUp's & Tom's Hardware's links. Also, AnandTech posted their links via Dlvr.it shortener. The extension successfully removed the fbclid parameter from AnandTech's links but failed to do the same for PCGamer's links (via buff.ly)
The extension is configurable, you will have to add new parameters you want by yourself. A parameter by itself will be removed from all sites, you can also specify that it should only be applied on a particular domain. The default configuration has fbclid@facebook.com, so it might not work on other sites. If you find any new junk parameters to remove, just append them to the garbage fields list in the extension preferences and reload the page to test. Try replacing fbclid@facebook.com with just fbclid and see if that helps.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-06, 15:20
by hujan86
moonbat wrote:
2019-09-04, 13:17
The extension is configurable, you will have to add new parameters you want by yourself. A parameter by itself will be removed from all sites, you can also specify that it should only be applied on a particular domain. The default configuration has fbclid@facebook.com, so it might not work on other sites. If you find any new junk parameters to remove, just append them to the garbage fields list in the extension preferences and reload the page to test. Try replacing fbclid@facebook.com with just fbclid and see if that helps.
Yup, removing @facebook.com did the trick.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-10, 10:22
by fatboy
Awesome! Installing this now! Thank You for making this addon!

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-10, 13:49
by moonbat
fatboy wrote:
2019-09-10, 10:22
Awesome! Installing this now! Thank You for making this addon!
Ported it, didn't make it by myself :D

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-14, 11:14
by biopsin
When I enable version 1.20, I see

Code: Select all

~/$ palemoon
Loading userx profile

 ~/ $ console.error:
Object
    - message = Component returned failure code: 0x80040111 (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE) [nsIXPCComponents_Utils.import]
    - fileName = undefined
    - lineNumber = 18
    - stack = @undefined:18:NaN|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js:18:22|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/sandbox.js:19:37|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/worker-child.js:14:27|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:81:3|emitOnObject@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:112:9|emit@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:89:38|messageReceived@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:67:37|
    - toString = () => toString
console.error:
Object
    - message = Component returned failure code: 0x80040111 (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE) [nsIXPCComponents_Utils.import]
    - fileName = undefined
    - lineNumber = 18
    - stack = @undefined:18:NaN|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js:18:22|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/sandbox.js:19:37|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/worker-child.js:14:27|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/page-mod.js:14:25|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:81:3|emitOnObject@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:112:9|emit@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:89:38|messageReceived@resource
ce://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:67:37|
    - toString = () => toString
console.error:
Object
    - message = Component returned failure code: 0x80040111 (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE) [nsIXPCComponents_Utils.import]
    - fileName = undefined
    - lineNumber = 18
    - stack = @undefined:18:NaN|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js:18:22|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/sandbox.js:19:37|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/worker-child.js:14:27|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:81:3|emitOnObject@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:112:9|emit@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:89:38|messageReceived@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:67:37|
    - toString = () => toString
console.error:
Object
    - message = Component returned failure code: 0x80040111 (NS_ERROR_NOT_AVAILABLE) [nsIXPCComponents_Utils.import]
    - fileName = undefined
    - lineNumber = 18
    - stack = @undefined:18:NaN|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/loader/sandbox.js:18:22|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/sandbox.js:19:37|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/worker-child.js:14:27|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/content/page-mod.js:14:25|@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:81:3|emitOnObject@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:112:9|emit@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/event/core.js:89:38|messageReceived@resource://gre/modules/commonjs/sdk/remote/child.js:67:37|
    - toString = () => toString

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-14, 12:51
by moonbat
biopsin wrote:
2019-09-14, 11:14
When I enable version 1.20, I see
Does it not work properly for you? None of this code you pasted originates from Pure URL AFAICT.

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-14, 14:52
by Isengrim
@moonbat: Those look like SDK error messages to me. Doesn't Pure URL use the SDK?

@biopsin: Do the error messages still show up when you disable Pure URL and restart?

Re: Pure URL for Palemoon

Posted: 2019-09-14, 14:59
by moonbat
Isengrim wrote:
2019-09-14, 14:52
@moonbat: Those look like SDK error messages to me. Doesn't Pure URL use the SDK?

@biopsin: Do the error messages still show up when you disable Pure URL and restart?
It's a jetpack extension, is that the same thing? I just changed the application ID and added it to PM after the original developer said I could since he wasn't interested in working on it anymore, and it works fine so far.