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Google Unveils goo.gl URL Shortening Service
eldavojohn writes "The Sultan of Search is unveiling a new service (currently only available for Google Toolbar and Feedburner) that will tackle a very old problem usually solved by bit.ly or tinyurl — URL shortening. Now, we've heard cries for sanity to prevent potential issues (like what if tr.im had shut down and broken millions of links?) but with one of the goliaths of the industry jumping in the ring it looks like URL shortening is here to stay. And a quick note for people who enjoy privacy, goo.gl explicitly states: 'Please note that Google may choose to publicly display aggregate and non-personally identifiable statistics about particular shortened links, such as the number of end user clicks.' You didn't think Google was going to sit back and let bit.ly harvest juicy data on 2.1 billion links that were clicked in November without trying to corner some of that action to make their ad suggestions more accurate, did you?" Google's shortening service is called Goo.gl.
Animal or vegetal shortening?
See? I can also miss one tiny, important detail!
Oh crap, I hope I don't start writing for Slashdot...
i 4 1 wl b avoiding ths. XStng sRvcs wRk fine & this is 1 mr way goo.gl headed 2wrds Nfo omnisns
There! Shortened that for you!
I, for one, will not be satisfied until my URLs are compressed as a super positions of themselves and stored in qubits.
Perhaps Google can use one of their quantum computers to appease me.
Here's your answer: http://bit.ly/4kb77v
Hang on. He only proved that he can't read, we need proof that he can't write either before Slashdot hires him..
Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
This seemed utterly rubbish to me until I put on my Google Goggles. Now everything looks awesome.
[signature]
Hang on. He only proved that he can't read, we need proof that he can't write either before Slashdot hires him..
Well the offer is only for a junior position, so he can't be expected to both not be able to read and not be able to write. Just one of those skills is a requirement for this entry level position. However with the excellent in-house training available at Slashdot, I'm sure his writing skills will start to degrade in mere weeks - if not days
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Long links in twitter messages significantly reduce the amount of available characters.
Google is really going to look foolish when my new, extensible length twitter service comes out. This new service will allow arbitrary length messages and thus totally eliminate the need to link shortening.
Although I haven't yet named my new service, I am leaning towards calling it "eMail", but I need to check if that name has already been taken.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
My URL shortening system is called JFGI (or JFBI if you prefer Bing).
Four characters. Beat that!
Btw, I have a submarine patent on the three characters FGI, and also the two character GI, which is more polite, but doesn't have the same level of exasperation with the recipient.
The big win is that you can safely use the above system at work, whereas because shortened URLs are inherently masking the destination, you cannot trust such a link, and thus must therefore never click on it in a work place, in case someone has linked to something abhorrent and vile, like foxnews.com.
Well you could always start a Nigerian company called bi.ng ?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
So, that's how Google Gibraltar looks like... It's funny how the official meaning of TLD is always totally ignored. Case in point: as many others, White House uses bit.ly for its URL shortening on White House Tweeter posts... never mind that .ly TLD is assigned to Libya.
Rick rolling is nothing compared to that time someone posted a url to the FBI site on Slashdot.
Url had a GET message confessing to having a hard drive full of CP, and it got modded +5 funny.
"Coozy Pumpkins" sounds a hell of a lot worse to me... If that's a euphemism for anything I don't want to know.
Rick rolling is nothing compared to that time someone posted a url to the FBI site on Slashdot.
Url had a GET message confessing to having a hard drive full of CP, and it got modded +5 funny.
Do you have a link to the post?
One of my own sites came up as "tinywiddlebums". I think I'll use a URL shortener that won't get me arrested.
Ezekiel 23:20
Well you could always start a Nigerian company called bi.ng ?
Great idea. You'd probably make US 20,000,000 million dollars and need to find some helpful person in a Western country to move it out of Nigeria. I'm sure you would be willing to pay a 10% finder's fee.