Google used to run one of the most popular link shortening services, allowing people to create smaller links and track clicks. Now, though, Google is fully killing off its link shortener, and all the shortened links it generated.
Starting next month, people clicking on goo.gl links will likely see a warning page before being redirected to their desired website. This marks the beginning of the end for Google’s URL shortener service, which will be completely shut down by August 2025. Google originally discontinued goo.gl for new users back in 2018, but existing shortened links remained functional. However, the company has now decided to fully retire the service and kill off all of the shortened links it generated.
Everyone has roughly one year to replace goo.gl links in their applications and websites. While a warning page will initially appear for a small percentage of links, this will gradually increase until all goo.gl links display the message. The warning page will inform users that the link will soon become inactive and encourage them to visit the original website.
This move is expected to impact billions of existing links across the web, but Google believes it is a necessary step towards maintaining a modern and efficient web ecosystem. Still, there will likely be many pages that aren’t updated in time, and then it will become much harder to track down the original source (if it still exists). Link rot is a significant problem with the modern web, and Google killing all of its shortened links will make it much worse. This is also a service that likely doesn’t cost much to keep running, it’s just a bunch of redirects, which makes the shutdown even more irritating.
The goo.gl shortener joins a long list of discontinued Google products and services, including Hangouts, Stadia, and Google+. It’s sad, but at the same time, it’s what we’ve grown accustomed to from Google.
