I was suspicious when they started obfuscating URLs in their own browser, then on their SERPs, and now this...

For many years, I had my filtering proxy rewrite the URLs in the way mentioned in the article.

Almost exactly a year ago, Google stopped working without JS. I stopped using Google.

Now they're upping the game, and as the article (which is a bit of marketing itself) admits, those who have the resources can still blast through these obstacles while those who don't are locked out.

Since the article brings up "AI scrapers", I'll just point it out as being the latest scare-tactic for coercing people to give up the privacy, anonymity, and (browser) freedom of an open interoperable Internet.