Google is Ending the goo.gl Link URL Shortener Service

In recent times the frequent use of emails, blogs, Twitter, Whatsapp etc has lead the users to use short URLs to send each other. The goo.gl of Google along with bit.ly and ow.ly are among the most popular tools to shorten the lengthy URLs.

But on last Friday (30 March 2018), Google announced the ending of the goo.gl link URL shortener service by 30 May. For now, the already shortened links through goo.gl will keep working, but eventually, Google will phase out the short URL creation feature.

So if you were among the goo.gl users to shorten the URLs, you need to switch to the alternatives for fulfiling your purpose.

Why is Google doing so?

For URL shortening requirement, we are having many different options now, and Google also is providing a replacement calling it as “FireBase Dynamic Links”. These are shortened links which will function spontaneously between different kinds of gadgets such as phones, desktop computers. These shortened links are capable of not only to redirect you to the redirected URL of a website but on the Apps too.

Important Dates to Keep in Mind

If you have existing goo.gl short links, you can continue to use all features of the goo.gl  console for a period of one year, until March 30, 2019.
Post March 30, 2019, all the shorten links will continue to redirect to their respective webpages. Google also informed that the existing short links will not be migrated to the Firebase console, though, user can export their link information from the goo.gl console.

Firebase Dynamic Links is the Future

Google proudly admitted that the URL shortener had been a great tool, but to transform into the future they are looking at the possibilities of Firebase Dynamic Links. This is having the capability of dynamic platform detection and makes the shorten URL adapt to the intended platform. They hope it will excite and encourage the user to accept it and use it more!