July 19, 2024 at 8:57:35 PM UTC

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Genuinely upset at the retirement of Google’s URL shortener, goo.gl.

https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/

Just to be clear, this will break a large portion of the web for what seems to be a marginal cost savings. So many Google decisions—including the recent sale of Google Domains—have us asking why? Who’s making the decisions over there?

16 replies

Thomas Phinney 17 min later

@zachleat Any tips for how to scan a specific website for goo.gl links?
1. Zach Leatherman 33 min later
  
  @tphinney my own spider-pig can do this but there are many other link checking utilities too!
  https://github.com/zachleat/spider-pig
  another one: https://github.com/lycheeverse/lychee
  1. Thomas Phinney 13 hr later
    
    @zachleat awesome! Thank you
Ross Nelson 28 min later

@zachleat This is why I hate when services automatically run stuff through URL shorteners. If *I* run the link through a shortener and the services goes down, yeah, I'm unhappy. But if all of my links break because something else decided to start running every URL through them, I'm extra unhappy.
Also: obligatory killedbygoogle.com mention :flan_rage:
Zach Leatherman 36 min later

Wow, just learned that Google Photos is actively generating `goo.gl` share URLs.
Edit: it’s possible this URL will be unaffected, as the original blog post notes the retirement of `https://goo.gl` links. However, I do have Google Photos shared albums currently using `https://goo.gl` links, so 😬🤷
1. John Skiles Skinner 1 hr later
  
  @zachleat
  I created and shared one of these links with google photos as recently as this week. Would be nice if they stopped directing people to create things they plan to turn off!
2. Rijk 🐰 ✨ 2 hr later
  
  @zachleat surely they're keeping it around for their own use? ..right??
3. groff 🇺🇦 2 hr later
  
  @zachleat Don't worry they're transitioning to Firebase dynamic links.
  Wait. What?...
  https://lou.lt/@s427/112811722003171428
Djwebdroid 2 hr later

@zachleat Google this, google that. Google in your hat.
Tyler McGee 4 hr later

@zachleat @Lazarou
Doesn’t make any sense why you would shut this down. It’s got to cost next to nothing to keep running and it’s only negative press about adding another headstone to the Google Graveyard.
🪦🪦🪦
1. Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈 4 hr later
  
  @ty_406 @zachleat I was trying to think of something witty to say about 'the Burning of the Great Library' and then I remember Google uploaded a load of books, didn't they?
  Now I'm just concerned. Bastards....
suldrew 🚲🏳️‍🌈 5 hr later

@zachleat The sale of Domains was the sign to me that they didn't care anymore.
Erik Uden 🚩 9 hr later

@zachleat wait, you can BUY “.google” domains??
1. Jakob 9 hr later
  
  @ErikUden @zachleat pretty sure he is talking about the sale of the Google Domains service to Squarespace, not .google domains being sold
Dirk Spannaus 🌿 10 hr later

Never trust a third party service for such easy to run tool, but with a high consequential damage, if third party shuts down. Use OpenSource, e.g. yourls on an own branded domain. Minimum cost at 💯% control + own branding (domain).
kaiserkiwi 12 hr later

@zachleat There's pretty much one thing I learned about Google: Never use anything of them. It will eventually disappear and break half of the internet.
It's so annoying. I can't imagine they will save more than a few hundred bucks because of this.