Recently links shared to me from IOS users using the google app have been obfuscated with search.app/SOMEUNIQUECODE where the app redirects to the originally intended website, but, of course, the person clicking the link is revealed to the owners of search.app.

Does anyone have IOS + google and can confirm this behavior? search.app has no home page and no documentation or reporting about it that I could find (other than that it’s a firebase app). The domain was registered to MarkMonitor Inc. in September of last year. But It’s not clear to me what MarkMonitor’s business actually is–it seems like they could just have registered it on behalf of someone.

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Yes, it’s Google:

    Registrant Organization: Google LLC

    You can get more details if you run whois on your machine (this is about half of the output):

    refer:        whois.nic.google
    
    domain:       APP
    
    organisation: Charleston Road Registry Inc.
    address:      1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
    address:      Mountain View CA 94043
    address:      United States of America (the)
    
    contact:      administrative
    name:         TLD Admin
    organisation: Google Inc.
    address:      111 8th Avenue
    address:      New York NY 10011
    address:      United States of America (the)
    phone:        +1 404 978 8419
    fax-no:       +1 650 492 5631
    e-mail:       iana-contact@google.com
    
    contact:      technical
    name:         TLD Engineering
    organisation: Google Inc
    address:      76 Ninth Avenue, 4th Floor
    address:      New York NY 10011
    address:      United States of America (the)
    phone:        +1 404 978 8419
    fax-no:       +1 650 492 5631
    e-mail:       crr-tech@google.com
    
    nserver:      NS-TLD1.CHARLESTONROADREGISTRY.COM 2001:4860:4802:32:0:0:0:69 216.239.32.105
    nserver:      NS-TLD2.CHARLESTONROADREGISTRY.COM 2001:4860:4802:34:0:0:0:69 216.239.34.105
    nserver:      NS-TLD3.CHARLESTONROADREGISTRY.COM 2001:4860:4802:36:0:0:0:69 216.239.36.105
    nserver:      NS-TLD4.CHARLESTONROADREGISTRY.COM 2001:4860:4802:38:0:0:0:69 216.239.38.105
    nserver:      NS-TLD5.CHARLESTONROADREGISTRY.COM 2001:4860:4805:0:0:0:0:69 216.239.60.105
    ds-rdata:     23684 8 2 3a5cc8a31e02c94aba6461912fabb7e9f5e34957bb6114a55a864d96aec31836
    
    whois:        whois.nic.google
    
    status:       ACTIVE
    remarks:      Registration information: https://www.registry.google
    
    created:      2015-06-25
    changed:      2020-04-20
    source:       IANA