but what the hell is the point of that if the url redirects to another url? do they really want to track people copy-pasting urls into email/ims? if so, why not use goo.gl?
What redirect? And, did you even read the comment that you're replying to?
1. There isn't a redirect from that huge link.
2. The post replying to just explained a theory that doesn't involve tracking: the URL needs to be that long to be unique enough to specify a page with the exact same search results.
2. Mouse over first result, note the url news.ycombinator.com shown in your browser's status bar.
3. Right-click the first result and 'copy link location'
4. Check what's on your clipboard. For me it's www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2F&ei=fRb5UNSeD-am0AW88YGQBg&usg=AFQjCNGKJHXhsq1s0-gYR96B--m47G9oRw&bvm=bv.41248874,d.d2k
5. Visit said URL in your browser and note you get redirected to news.ycombinator.com
As you can see, you are redirected via a huge link.
As janzer said, that's not the URL patio11 is talking about, however this redirect is here for a good reason too. It's needed to preserve the search terms in the referrer header for links that are triggered by JavaScript - which is needed if webmasters want to see which search terms are driving traffic to their sites.
