
Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down - illustrioussuit
When you visit the goo.gl homepage, this message appears:<p>&gt; 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.<p>[1]: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;developers.googleblog.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;transitioning-google-url-shortener.html?m=1
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dgacmu
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16719272](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16719272)

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bo1024
> 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/)

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endisukaj
That's Google for you!

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discreditable
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...](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)

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.

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foobarbecue
Or just use [http://a.co/gVf3K0x](http://a.co/gVf3K0x) ...

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pc86
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...](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)
without using a tool?

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cherls
I 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.

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foobarbecue
Correct, 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.

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xd1936
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.

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

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

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Piskvorrr
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
"We better get a bigger gorilla."

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

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cdax
They’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)

~~~
dordoka
Can confirm that SMSs are still a thing in enterprise. Several of my clients
use SMS a lot. Given the character limits, they tend to prefer short links so
they can give more info in the actual text. We've just migrated from goo.gl to
bit.ly on two of them.

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

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asdojasdosadsa
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

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chatmasta
Good riddance to one of the great phishing enablers.

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tangue
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 ...

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SeanKilleen
FYI 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.

