2024-10-22: Analyzing Redirects and Getting Rickrolled Along the Way
Redirects are often seen as the invisible roads of the web, silently sending users from one URL to another. While they typically serve the practical purpose of keeping web traffic flowing smoothly—replacing outdated links and guiding users to relevant resources — sometimes they lead to unexpected destinations. We have been researching the lifespan of web pages as part of our "Not Your Parents' Web" project in collaboration with the Internet Archive and Filecoin Foundation. As part of this work, we focused on redirecting URLs. During our analysis of the primary destinations that URLs lead to (referred to as sinks), one particularly notable pattern emerged, revealing how meme culture and internet pranks influence the web. As I examined a dataset of redirecting URLs, I uncovered a notable pattern involving one of the internet’s most famous pranks: Rickrolling.
Rickrolling on web
Rickrolling, a cultural internet phenomenon, involves sharing misleading links that direct unsuspecting users to Rick Astley’s 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up. The origins of this meme lie in a playful form of online deception, where users are tricked into clicking a link, typically under the pretense that the link leads to something of interest or relevance. However, rather than reaching the expected content, users are redirected to the music video, often to their surprise or mild annoyance. The prank often works through URL redirection, which occurs seamlessly in the web browser and may confuse users about how they ended up watching an unrelated video. The GIF below perfectly demonstrates how this classic internet prank lures users into clicking a link that redirects to the iconic music video — a playful bait-and-switch tactic that has become a long-standing joke across various online communities.
Classic Rickroll in action: A subreddit post pulling off a Rickroll prank.
The meme's persistence has made it a key part of the internet’s history, with its roots extending back to early internet forums and viral pranks. After its inception in 2007, the meme saw a massive spike in popularity in 2008 as it spread across online communities. Though its popularity gradually declined, it never disappeared, maintaining a steady presence in internet culture. The meme experienced a resurgence around 2020, likely driven by increased online activity during the COVID-19 pandemic and platforms like TikTok. While its prominence has since waned, Rickrolling remains a nostalgic part of web humor, extending into real-life pranks, from playing the song unexpectedly in public to surprising crowds with live performances of "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Rickrolling Among the Top Redirect Sinks
A sink refers to the final target URL where multiple redirecting URLs (or source URLs) converge. While a source URL is the starting point in a redirect chain, the target URL is where that chain ends. We use "sink" when multiple source URLs lead to the same location. Sinks can serve various purposes, including functional sinks (which guide users from outdated or broken links to updated pages), commercial sinks (used to redirect traffic for advertising, e-commerce, or marketing affiliation purposes), and humorous sinks (like Rickrolling, where the goal is to surprise or entertain users). Each type of sink reflects a different intention behind URL redirection, ranging from utility to profit to entertainment.
In our analysis of the top ten sinks with the highest number of redirects from source URLs, one sink stood out prominently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0. Upon investigating, we realized we had been Rickrolled. This URL, featuring an unofficial upload of the song "Never Gonna Give You Up," ranked in the top 5 for the number of source URLs redirecting to it and in the top 10 based on distinct source domains.
What makes this case particularly intriguing is the source of the redirects: 489 source URLs from 82 distinct adult content domains. This suggests a deliberate effort to redirect users from explicit material to a lighthearted, unexpected video, aligning with the surprise and humor that define Rickrolling. The redirection of 489 URLs from adult content sites to this unofficial Rick Astley video raises questions about its intent and significance. Potential explanations for this redirection pattern include:
Humorous Redirection: Redirecting users from adult content to a playful music video fits the established mold of Rickrolling, playing on the contrast between user expectations and the benign nature of the video.
Repurposed or Expired Domains: Many adult content domains may have expired or been acquired for new uses. In such cases, redirecting to a well-known video like "Never Gonna Give You Up" could serve as a placeholder, a joke, or a method to maintain some form of traffic.
Avoiding Dead Links: Some site administrators might redirect defunct or outdated content to a recognizable URL rather than leave users with a 404 error, especially if they are familiar with internet memes like Rickrolling.
Interestingly, the Rickroll URL that dominated our sink list was not the official version of "Never Gonna Give You Up." The official video also appeared as a target URL in our analysis but with a much smaller footprint: 22 source URLs were redirecting to the official version. These source URLs varied widely in content and purpose, spanning gaming discussions, tech tutorials, and various other topics. The following curl request snippet to one of the source URLs demonstrates the Rickrolling phenomenon.
A curl request to "https://arreat.ru/," which was previously a gaming domain, now redirects to the official YouTube video of the song.
Even with fewer redirects in our sample, the official song video maintains a solid presence in the redirection landscape, showing how deeply embedded this meme is in internet culture. A quick search on Bing using the 'link:' operator returns 67.3 million results for the official video link, highlighting the widespread influence of Rickrolling and the massive volume of content referencing or linking back to it. Initially, we attempted to use Google to find pages linking to this specific URL, but Google discontinued support for the 'link:' operator in 2017.
Bing search returns an astounding 67.3 million results for the official video link
Beyond Rickrolling: A Curious Redirect to “I’m a Little Teapot”
While the Rickroll redirection patterns were particularly notable, they were not the only YouTube sinks to appear prominently in our data. Our sample's second popular YouTube sink in terms of source URLs was a video of the nursery rhyme “I’m a Little Teapot.” This classic children’s song also serves as a favored redirection target, indicating how internet culture uses humorous or surprising content to redirect user expectations. This example demonstrates a parallel form of humor to Rickrolling. Redirecting users to a familiar, innocuous rhyme when they expect more serious content serves as a playful interruption and a testament to how internet humor often subverts expectations through well-known, lighthearted videos.
It’s reminiscent of the HTTP status code 418: I'm a teapot, which originated from the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP), an April Fool’s joke introduced in 1998. The protocol was created to handle requests to coffee pots, but status code 418 humorously signals that the server is a teapot incapable of brewing coffee. Although not used in serious contexts, it reflects how internet culture infuses humor into even technical elements, much like the playful redirection to “I’m a Little Teapot.”
Conclusion
Examining these redirection patterns offers a window into the playful and unpredictable nature of the internet. Redirects are functional tools meant to guide users from one destination to another. Yet, as the Rickroll and “I’m a Little Teapot” examples demonstrate, they can also be used creatively to entertain, surprise, and amuse. And beyond that, these patterns emphasize the enduring power of internet culture to shape user experiences. Memes like the Rickroll serve not just as fleeting jokes but as lasting cultural artifacts, embedding themselves in the very infrastructure of how users navigate the web.
Acknowledgment
We would like to acknowledge the support of the Internet Archive and the Filecoin Foundation in enabling our research. We thank Dr. Michael Nelson, Dr. Michele Weigle, and Dr. Sawood Alam for their invaluable guidance and input throughout this work.
--
Comments
Post a Comment