In the old days, advertisers used googleadservices.com as their landing page URL. Google now requires your ad to lead to your actual domain (e.g., yourshop.com ). Google automatically inserts the googleadservices.com redirect between the click and your site.

It acts as a bridge, securely sending the user from the Google search results page to the advertiser’s landing page.

“Not a virus,” she told her friend. “Just the invisible accountant of the free internet.”