Redirect Rot

February 9, 2023

Things decay over time. It’s true! Life is hard. Sometimes though, you see a mess that really, someone ought to have cleaned up already.

:~$ curl https://gmail.com
<HTML><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>301 Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<H1>301 Moved</H1>
The document has moved
<A HREF="https://www.google.com/gmail/">here</A>.
</BODY></HTML>

Oh right, the cute name isn’t the real name anymore. Gosh it’s almost 20 years old now, I remember being so eager and excited for an invite.

:~$ curl https://www.google.com/gmail/
<HTML><HEAD><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
<TITLE>302 Moved</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>
<H1>302 Moved</H1>
The document has moved
<A HREF="https://mail.google.com/mail/">here</A>.
</BODY></HTML>

Oh well that’s silly. /gmail/, /mail, who cares. Oh wait no- we’re also switching subdomains.

:~$ curl https://mail.google.com/mail/
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Moved Temporarily</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000">
<H1>Moved Temporarily</H1>
The document has moved <A HREF="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/">here</A>.
</BODY>
</HTML>

Ah yes, the framework nonsense.

:~$ curl https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Moved Temporarily</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000">
<H1>Moved Temporarily</H1>
The document has moved <A HREF="https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=mail&amp;passive=1209600&amp;osid=1&amp;continue=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/&amp;followup=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/&amp;emr=1">here</A>.
</BODY>
</HTML>

oh bother.

:~$ curl 'https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=mail&passive=1209600&osid=1&continue=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/&followup=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/&emr=1'
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Moved Temporarily</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000">
<H1>Moved Temporarily</H1>
The document has moved <A HREF="https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?dsh=S-855590345%3A1676005353432758&amp;continue=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2Fu%2F0%2F&amp;emr=1&amp;followup=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2Fu%2F0%2F&amp;osid=1&amp;passive=1209600&amp;service=mail&amp;flowName=WebLiteSignIn&amp;flowEntry=ServiceLogin&amp;ifkv=AWnogHfOR48lViCet7ZKsjn3ecmnActCnGb49kRIlHFBAVaRU-xG2WnwyugATyMKz6dVwioB0QPzZQ">here</A>.
</BODY>
</HTML>

Oh double bother. I’m going to have to break out a real urldecoder.

:~$ curl 'https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?dsh=S-855590345:1676005353432758&amp;continue=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/&amp;emr=1&amp;followup=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/&amp;osid=1&amp;passive=1209600&amp;service=mail&amp;flowName=WebLiteSignIn&amp;flowEntry=ServiceLogin&amp;ifkv=AWnogHfOR48lViCet7ZKsjn3ecmnActCnGb49kRIlHFBAVaRU-xG2WnwyugATyMKz6dVwioB0QPzZQ'
<html lang=en><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="initial-scale=1, minimum-scale=1, width=device-width"><title>Error 404 (Not Found)!!1</title><style nonce="z6OTySjnDZtx-o03oZxP8A">*{margin:0;padding:0}html,code{font:15px/22px arial,sans-serif}html{background:#fff;color:#222;padding:15px}body{color:#222;text-align:unset;margin:7% auto 0;max-width:390px;min-height:180px;padding:30px 0 15px;}* > body{background:url(//www.google.com/images/errors/robot.png) 100% 5px no-repeat;padding-right:205px}p{margin:11px 0 22px;overflow:hidden}pre{white-space:pre-wrap;}ins{color:#777;text-decoration:none}a img{border:0}@media screen and (max-width:772px){body{background:none;margin-top:0;max-width:none;padding-right:0}}#logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/1x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) no-repeat;margin-left:-5px}@media only screen and (min-resolution:192dpi){#logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/2x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) no-repeat 0% 0%/100% 100%;-moz-border-image:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/2x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) 0}}@media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:2){#logo{background:url(//www.google.com/images/branding/googlelogo/2x/googlelogo_color_150x54dp.png) no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:100% 100%}}#logo{display:inline-block;height:54px;width:150px}</style><main id="af-error-container" role="main"><a href=//www.google.com><span id=logo aria-label=Google role=img></span></a><p><b>404.</b> <ins>That’s an error.</ins><p>The requested URL was not found on this server. <ins>That’s all we know.</ins></main>

You know what, forget it.