Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

59 points by illustrioussuit 8 years ago | 45 comments

When you visit the goo.gl homepage, this message appears:

> Starting March 30, 2018, we will be turning down support for goo.gl URL shortener. From April 13, 2018 only existing users will be able to create short links on the goo.gl console. You will be able to view your analytics data and download your short link information in csv format for up to one year, until March 30, 2019, when we will discontinue goo.gl. Previously created links will continue to redirect to their intended destination. Please see this blog post[1] for more details.

[1]: https://developers.googleblog.com/2018/03/transitioning-google-url-shortener.html?m=1

dgacmu 8 years ago |

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16719272

bo1024 8 years ago |

> To refocus our efforts, we're turning down support for goo.gl over the coming weeks and replacing it with Firebase Dynamic Links[1] (FDL).

Hmm, so replacing something simple and straightforward with something incredibly complicated aimed at a different use case...

[1] https://firebase.google.com/products/dynamic-links/

endisukaj 8 years ago | |

That's Google for you!

qwerty456127 8 years ago | |

Running an URL shortener. So effort. Wow :-)

discreditable 8 years ago |

PSA: You can make your own (relatively) shorter URLs if you're willing to guess at how to un-pretty site's URLs. My most common one is Amazon. Most URLs are amazon.com/dp/xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Knowing that you can take a nasty URL like:

https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE...

and change it to:

https://amazon.com/dp/B00EHBERSE

That's 122 chars to 32 chars. This kind of tactic works for tons of sites.

emddudley 8 years ago | |

Amazon also has a hybrid between URL hacking and URL shortening: A short domain that redirects product codes.

https://amzn.com/B00EHBERSE

foobarbecue 8 years ago | |

Or just use http://a.co/gVf3K0x ...

pc86 8 years ago | | |

They're talking about generating the shorter link just by looking at the first one (e.g., in your head).

How do you get your link out of https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE... without using a tool?

discreditable 8 years ago | | |

I used Amazon an an example because they are the first I learned to do this trick with. I know Amazon has canonical ways to shorten URLs. Many other sites don't. Here's Monoprice:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10260&cs_id...

p_id is all that matters:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=29523

95 chars to 45 chars.

CDW is more fun. They expect some pretty part of the URL, but don't do anything with it. So you shorten it to 1 char if you want the link to still work:

https://www.cdw.com/product/Tripp-Lite-10ft-Cat6-Gigabit-Sna...

becomes:

https://www.cdw.com/product/T/934322

127 chars to 37.

foobarbecue 8 years ago | | |

FWIW, my link is not equivalent to the one I replied to, and this lazy comment of mine probably deserves downvotes for making it seem I was implying that. These a.co links are not generated until requested, and new ones are generated each time they are requested. OP pointing out that you can quickly link to a common unique ID is valuable. I was just pointing out that the existing link shortener is pretty good.

thecatspaw 8 years ago | | |

the biggest difference here is I cannot tell if your link is amazon or if its gonna send me to a spam site or use your referral for amazon.

slenk 8 years ago | | |

How do you easily shorten down to that? The others all used the same product code...his is a random URL

O_H_E 8 years ago | |

I always have fun doing that

xd1936 8 years ago |

This decision makes no sense to me. Why would Google pass on all of this free analytics data? They also use subdomains of goo.gl for a ton of their own products. Google Maps shareable links are maps.goo.gl, for example.

y_molodtsov 8 years ago | |

Oh, I don't think they will have any issues using those themselves.

tekism 8 years ago |

They can't even keep a URL shortner service up and running?

Piskvorrr 8 years ago | |

s/can't/won't/

In other words, a 80000-pound gorilla sits anywhere it damn wishes to. (Yes, I know that the original gorilla was two orders of magnitude smaller)

ericzawo 8 years ago | | |

"We better get a bigger gorilla."

Gys 8 years ago | |

I suspect goo.gl sounds too much as a 'validated' Google link. Like the Amazon examples elsewhere in this thread. So users think falsely they can trust these links.

If true its actually surprising they kept the service going this long.

mafagafogigante 8 years ago | |

It's more about what they want to promote instead than about whether or not they can pay for it.

codetrotter 8 years ago | |

Perhaps they got tired of spammers and scammers making use of their URL shortening service?

gaius 8 years ago |

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

polskibus 8 years ago |

I think Google is just shedding GDPR risks where it doesn't hurt revenue.

asdojasdosadsa 8 years ago |

I used to use this to share my teaching material with my students from Google Drive, giving them a short and friendly URL seemed the most efficient way of sharing the material (Age varies between 18 - 99). Well, I don't know what I'm going to use now, probably tinylink, but somehow never liked 'em

chatmasta 8 years ago |

Good riddance to one of the great phishing enablers.

tangue 8 years ago |

The decision was so poorly communicated that even A Google Product like the campaign url builder no longer works. And I didn’t really understand why I’d use Firebase for shortening an url and after clicking on the page I’m more confused than ever. So... back to bit.ly ...

SeanKilleen 8 years ago |

FYI I created a quick tool for this at http://xluh.co/repo.

It's basic now but I'll be building it up in light of this.