Patent ID: 8695093

Claim:
A system for external link processing comprising: an interface configured to: receive a user request to access an encoded external link in networked content, the encoded external link comprising: a domain name of an external link server; and an encoded portion comprising an encoded result of an original external link encoded with an encoding function, wherein the original external link is an address to an external destination, wherein the original external link is replaced on a web page by the encoded external link to be selected by a user, and wherein the external link server is external to a server hosting the web page, and external to the external destination; one or more processors coupled to the interface, configured to: decode the encoded external portion into the original external link based on the same encoding function that was used to encode the original external link into the encoded portion; determine a safety level of the encoded external link using a criterion; and in the event the determined safety level of the encoded external link is determined unsafe, generate a warning message that the original external link is unsafe and prevent the user from directly navigating to the original external link; and one or more memories coupled with the one or more processors, configured to provide the one or more processors with instructions.