# ved — what Google records about the link you clicked

- Canonical: https://linkclean.app/trackers/ved/
- Updated: 2026-10-01
- Author: Ken Tominaga (https://ken0nek.com)
- Get the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/linkclean/id6758604043

Parameter: `ved` · Category: Analytics IDs · Vendor: Google Search

> ved is **Google Search's encoded description of a link on the results page** — which link it was, what kind, and where it sat. It was decoded by outside researchers in 2013; Google has never documented it. It is not needed to run a search, and LinkClean strips it on Google's search domains.

## What is inside ved

ved is not random. It is a small Protocol Buffers message, Base64-encoded, and in 2013 the Deed Poll Office published a decoding of it. The fields they identified: a **link index** that counts up as you go down the page, a **link type** (an ordinary result, a sitelink, an image, an ad, and so on), the **position of the result** on the page, and the **starting position** of the page itself — so page two of the results is distinguishable from page one.

The first character tells you the format. Values starting with `0` are the encoded form; values starting with `1` are the same data as plain text. Later analysis found a longer form starting with `2`.

## Where you meet it

Google attaches a ved value to links on the results page so that a click can be logged against the exact element that was clicked. It then travels: into the redirect address Google sometimes routes a click through, and into the results URL itself when you refine a search or move between result tabs.

**Google publishes no specification for ved.** Everything here is observed behaviour or the work of people who decoded it, not a documented contract. The [Google search URL](https://linkclean.app/learn/google-search-url-parameters/) overview covers the rest of the session keys.

## What it leaks when you share a search

On its own, ved says what you clicked to get where you are — which is information about your browsing, not about the page. Forwarded inside a results URL it travels with [ei](https://linkclean.app/trackers/ei/), which carries the time of the search, and [sca_esv](https://linkclean.app/trackers/sca-esv/).

## How LinkClean removes it

Default-on, and scoped to Google's search domains (`google.com` and the main country domains). The same letters on any other site are left alone, and `q=`, `tbm=`, `udm=` and `hl=` — the parts that decide what the search shows — are never touched.

## Example

Looks like this in a URL: `https://www.google.com/search?q=link+cleaner&ved=2ahUKEwiZ0&ei=AbCdZfGhI`

After LinkClean: `https://www.google.com/search?q=link+cleaner`

## Frequently asked

**What does ved stand for?**

Google has never said. The name is not expanded anywhere in its public documentation.

**Can I decode a ved value myself?**

Yes, for the older formats. It is Base64 over a Protocol Buffers message, and the 2013 Deed Poll Office write-up gives the field layout. Newer values carry more fields than that analysis covered.

**Does removing ved break the link?**

No. On a results URL the search is defined by q=. On a redirect link the destination is in its own parameter. ved is a log entry about the click, not part of the address.

**Is ved a personal identifier?**

Not by what has been decoded: the known fields describe the link and its position, not the person. It is still a record of what you clicked, attached to a link you are about to hand to someone else.


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