Goo.gl link shortener is no more, but that’s okay
G oogle launched a link shortener in 2009 popularly known as goo.gl, but it’s no more an active service for new users from Google (with effect from 30th of March 2018). It’s not scary, but it’s not pleasing enough either.
The link shortener was widely used by a bunch of internet users including active twitter users, brands and a lot of normal users on the internet to shorten URLs. The shortener used to convert a long URL into a short one like “goo.gl/name”.
It was pretty easy and cute enough to paste it on Facebook, Twitter and even on your Instagram bio. It helped people convert the complex URLs to short and tiny one thereby generating a better click through rate.
Shut down
Google decided to shut down the URL shortener with the users in mind, so that the existing links will work without any kind of troubles, but users won’t be able to generate more links with the Goo.gl shortener service.
The service will be completely shut down by 30th March 2019 (yes, its 2019) and the existing users would be able to shorten links until the last date. They are not closing the service to get rid of link shortening system, instead Google is making it better with FDL (Firebase Dynamic Links).These are smart URLs which behaves according to the users device, location etc.
Google also claims that they are coming up with a tool to transform the existing old links into firebase dynamic links (which is pretty awesome).
Alternatives
Internet is like an open source ocean, when someone drops their project, a million others will come up with something more affordable, more interesting and efficient enough the satisfy the users.
Goo.gl was not the only URL shortener out there, bit.ly is one of the most famous URL shortener which is being widely used by millions of people around the world. There are other alternative options like ow.ly either to help you shorten your link for free and to track the traffic with more analytical data.
Even though all these services exists, the space of goo.gl cannot be filled. It can never be forgotten because of the enormous amount of links it shortened (which is definitely not countable). Rest in peace goo.gl
