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Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down
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
- discreditable 8y agoPSA: 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/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1524489624&sr=1-3&keywords=wd+red https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE... and change it to: https://amazon.com/dp/B00EHBERSE https://amazon.com/dp/B00EHBERSE That's 122 chars to 32 chars. This kind of tactic works for tons of sites.
- foobarbecue 8y agoOr just use http://a.co/gVf3K0x http://a.co/gVf3K0x ...
- thecatspaw 8y agothe 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.
- pc86 8y agoThey'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/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1524489624&sr=1-3&keywords=wd+red https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE... without using a tool?
- cherls 8y agoI think the idea is that, if you have the original link then you would also be able to find the shorter link by simply clicking share on the page and use short product link generated by Amazon. In practice, it is unlikely for anyone to share an Amazon link without having navigated to the page at least once. Given most sites have this option, it might seem silly to some that one suggests manually shortening the URL in the address bar instead of just clicking share.
- foobarbecue 8y agoCorrect, that was what I was saying, and I agree there are lots of scenarios where you want link shortening without generating a new random string.
- slenk 8y agoHow do you easily shorten down to that? The others all used the same product code...his is a random URL
- discreditable 8y agoI 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=1026002&p_id=29523&seq=1&format=2 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 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-Snagless-Molded-Patch-Cable-RJ45-M-M-Black-10ft/934322?pfm=srh https://www.cdw.com/product/Tripp-Lite-10ft-Cat6-Gigabit-Sna... becomes: https://www.cdw.com/product/T/934322 https://www.cdw.com/product/T/934322 127 chars to 37.
- foobarbecue 8y agoFWIW, 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.
- emddudley 8y agoAmazon also has a hybrid between URL hacking and URL shortening: A short domain that redirects product codes. https://amzn.com/B00EHBERSE https://amzn.com/B00EHBERSE
- O_H_E 8y agoI always have fun doing that
- bo1024 8y 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/ https://firebase.google.com/products/dynamic-links/
- endisukaj 8y agoThat's Google for you!
- qwerty456127 8y agoRunning an URL shortener. So effort. Wow :-)
- chatmasta 8y agoGood riddance to one of the great phishing enablers.
- gaius 8y agoCan anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.
- fabiospampinato 8y agoEasier to remember URLs, and statistics about how many people visits them.
- blakesterz 8y agoI use them in presentations, it's easier to have a really short URL on the slide for people. I'm not sure how common that is, but it's really handy. Other than that, I've not used them for anything.
- themihai 8y agoThey are easy to share/spell? though most of them are not that easy.
- kenrick95 8y agoAt posters, e.g. link to register for an event.
- izietto 8y agoI use them to share maps links on chat, for example this: https://goo.gl/maps/6zJsoaCTgTD2 https://goo.gl/maps/6zJsoaCTgTD2 is much better than this: https://www.google.it/maps/place/Presidio+di+Francavilla+Fontana+-+Ceglie+Messapica/@40.5366675,17.5801034,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x1346f5de5e89f9e1:0x511a585af2d8ead2!8m2!3d40.5396465!4d17.5784361 https://www.google.it/maps/place/Presidio+di+Francavilla+Fon...
- cdax 8y agoThey’re also good for including in SMS text messages. Or print media. Or for typing into browsers on devices with sub-optimal keyboards (from my own experience, I can think of the Xbox and the Kindle)
- 8y ago
- tekism 8y agoThey can't even keep a URL shortner service up and running?
- mafagafogigante 8y agoIt's more about what they want to promote instead than about whether or not they can pay for it.
- codetrotter 8y agoPerhaps they got tired of spammers and scammers making use of their URL shortening service?
- Piskvorrr 8y agos/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 8y ago"We better get a bigger gorilla."
- Gys 8y agoI 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.
- dgacmu 8y agoPrevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16719272 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16719272
- asdojasdosadsa 8y agoI 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
- xd1936 8y agoThis 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 8y agoOh, I don't think they will have any issues using those themselves.
- polskibus 8y agoI think Google is just shedding GDPR risks where it doesn't hurt revenue.
- tangue 8y agoThe 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 8y agoFYI I created a quick tool for this at http://xluh.co/repo http://xluh.co/repo. It's basic now but I'll be building it up in light of this.