If you see ?utm_source and a bunch of other gibberish at the end of a shared URL, go ahead and just take off everything starting with the ?
This is Google Analytics tracking information.
@alice Hmmm, it'd be interesting if my browser did that for it's surfers.
@alice sometimes I just change it to =Mastodon
😂
Thanks.
It feels so nice, now.
@alice or use an addon like "Neat URL" that does that automatically with all known tracking parameters: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/neat-url/
@steckerhalter @alice
Thanks for this useful thread ! I've just installed Neat URL :)
@steckerhalter ah ha I figured there had to be at least one
@alice Yes! One of those things that I assume everyone knows, and have to be reminded that I'm wrong.
@alice In X, install `xclip` (or tweak for `xsel`) and map a keyboard key to
xclip -o -selection clipboard | sed 's/&*\<utm_[^&]*//g;s/[&?]*$//' | xclip -i -selection clipboard
to take a URL on the clipboard and discard all utm_* parameters.
@alice Only edge-case I was able to find is if the "utm_*" came in the path of the URL rather than the parameters. E.g.
http://example.com/utm_test/blah/
@alice Tbh it's not super important? The bulk of the tracking information is collected by the GA script loaded on the page you're opening. the utm_source thingie is the smallest detail, allowing to track "campaigns", say, whether someone came from an e-mail newsletter, or a twitter post. Having ad/tracker blockers is a lot more effective than worrying about the utm stuff in the URL imo
@Gargron Oh totally. I was more trying to educate on what that jibberish was.
@alice I hate how my browser doesn't show the whole URL until highlighted, so many times i've already copied and pasted it before noticing that thrash. Also if I see it and select the address without thrash, the protocol is not copied and the link won't paste neatly. Thus I must first remove the thrash and reload the page before copying. Annoyingly complicated.
But I do it whenever I notice this.