Looker Studio - Disable "Warnings for external links" Feature

[steveng]

I noticed a new feature released on December 17, 2024, that forces users to visit a warning page before accessing external links embedded in reports.

Reference: Release Notes

Now, every external report link is prepended with https://www.google.com/url?q=, resulting in users encountering a page like this before reaching their destination:

This change has significantly impacted the experience for our users, as we rely heavily on external links in our reports. The additional step disrupts their workflow and creates unnecessary friction.

• Is there a way to disable this behavior?
• If not, could you please provide some insight into the reasoning behind this feature?

I don’t want to understate how frustrating this is for our users, so any guidance or options to improve the situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Steven