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Google Is Shutting Down Its Goo.gl URL Shortening Service (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new dept.

Google is replacing its URL shortener service, goo.gl, with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) as of April 13th. These new smart URLs will let you send people to any location within iOS, Android or web apps. Engadget reports: You won't be able to create new goo.gl short links after the 13th, but existing users can manage them via the goo.gl console for the next year. After that, all the links will still work, but you won't be able to access the console itself after March 30th, 2019. Google suggests creating FDLs from now on, or using other shortening services like Bitly and Ow.ly.

5 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That won't break the internet at all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Two things you shouldn't do on the internet: rely on URL shorteners (because they remove human readability from URLs, add an extra unnecessary lookup, and rely on a service that may randomly disappear), and rely on Google (because anything they make may randomly disappear).

    Yeah, except it's not disappearing. Only the ability to create new links is disappearing. Existing shortened links will continue to work indefinitely.

  2. I've always used http://tinyurl.com/ by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 3, Informative

    Or tinyurl.com. They have been doing this for a long time now, and no log in required.

    Two links to Slashdot.org - https://tinyurl.com/87d will take you right to /. and https://preview.tinyurl.com/87... which will allow one to preview or see what link you will be taken to.

    "Click here to enable previews." seen when previewing, I assume (I've never used it) will make previewing automatic, or default.

  3. Re:Transient services by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, that was his point.

  4. Re:Goo.d by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    That alphabet soup can hide the fact that it's forwarding your request through another website that captures all of your browser's javascript-visible data, so you really do want to know where you're being sent.

    www.black-hat.com/?url=www.white-hat.com&affiliate-tracking-id=deadbeef-007-42-69

  5. Re: That won't break the internet at all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, indefinitely. You need to work on your reading comprehension.