Case matters here
The slug on this page is lowercase for readability, but the parameter Outbrain actually sets on a link is obOrigUrl: capital O on Orig, capital U on Url. Query parameter names are read literally by most servers, so a lowercase rewrite like oborigurl is a different string as far as the redirect logic is concerned. If you are rebuilding or testing a link by hand, rather than just reading one someone sent you, keep the camel case exactly as it appears.
What the value actually holds
Most tracking parameters on links like this are opaque tokens, a string of letters and numbers that only means something inside the ad network's own database. obOrigUrl is different. Its value is a full URL, percent-encoded, pointing at the page you were actually trying to reach. That is unusual. It also explains why the parameter looks longer and stranger than a typical click id: you are looking at a URL nested inside a URL.
Set during the widget click
Outbrain sets obOrigUrl at the moment you click a thumbnail inside one of its recommendation widgets, the "around the web" or "you may also like" boxes under a news article. Clicking sends your browser first to an Outbrain tracking domain. That domain needs to know where to send you next, and obOrigUrl is how the destination travels through that hop.
Why this one is riskier to strip
For the visitor, mangling obOrigUrl before the redirect completes can genuinely break the link, unlike most tracking parameters on this site. Outbrain's click server may not know where to forward you, and you could land on an error page or Outbrain's own site instead of the article. Do not edit this one before the click resolves.
For the publisher and advertiser, losing the parameter after the fact just means the click can no longer be tied back to the specific widget placement in Outbrain's own reporting. Compare this to Taboola's tblci, an opaque click id with none of this URL-carrying behavior, or to Yandex's yclid from its own ad network. More parameters are indexed at the link decoder hub.
No public specification, and why that matters here
Outbrain has not published a formal, versioned specification for obOrigUrl the way Google documents gclid or TikTok documents ttclid. What is verifiable is the parameter as it appears in real Outbrain redirect URLs: an encoded destination sitting inside a query parameter, consistent with how a redirect service typically carries a "where to send this visitor" value. Treat any specific claim about its internal handling, including on this page, with the same caution the absence of public documentation warrants.
A worked example, decoded
Paste https://track.outbrain.com/click?obOrigUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fhow-to-article&key=abc123 into the decoder above. Once percent-decoded, obOrigUrl reads as https://www.example.com/how-to-article, the article you were actually headed to. The key parameter beside it is a separate, Outbrain-internal value with no comparable public meaning.
Common mistakes
- Rewriting the case of the parameter name.
obOrigUrlwith its exact capitalization is what Outbrain's redirect server expects. Lowercasing it to build or test a link by hand risks the parameter going unrecognized. - Editing the encoded URL inside the value. Because the payload is a nested, percent-encoded URL rather than an opaque token, it's tempting to hand-edit it. Any change to the inner URL has to be re-encoded correctly or the outer redirect can fail before it ever reaches Outbrain's tracking step.
- Assuming it behaves like an opaque click id such as tblci. Taboola's tblci is a lookup key with no readable content. obOrigUrl carries the actual destination in plain sight once decoded, which changes both what it reveals and how carefully it needs handling before the click resolves.