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Google The Internet Technology

Google URL Shortener Opened To the Public 244

Posted by CmdrTaco from the we-can-do-that-too dept.
Anonymusing writes "Just what the world needs, another URL shortener, right? Google seems to think so, and it's making its own widely available to anyone — complete with tracking and statistics — for free. As noted on its blog: 'There are many shorteners out there with great features, so some people may wonder whether the world really needs yet another. As we said late last year, we built goo.gl with a focus on quality. With goo.gl, every time you shorten a URL, you know it will work, it will work fast, and it will keep working. You also know that when you click a goo.gl shortened URL, you're protected against malware, phishing and spam using the same industry-leading technology we use in search and other products.' Is bit.ly shaking in its boots?"
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Google URL Shortener Opened To the Public More

Google URL Shortener Opened To the Public

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  • complete with tracking and statistics (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Galestar ( 1473827 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @06:33PM (#33753842) Homepage
    As in, one more place where Google gets to track you and make you a statistic.

  • Who? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30, 2010 @06:35PM (#33753848)

    Is bit.ly shaking in its boots?

    Dunno, I've never heard of them before. Should I have?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by YoshiDan ( 1834392 )

      Is bit.ly shaking in its boots?

      Dunno, I've never heard of them before. Should I have?

      Only if you're one of the freaks that uses twitter...

  • Chop off two letters (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30, 2010 @06:37PM (#33753872)

    g.gl, get to it google engineers. Short as hell.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by c6gunner ( 950153 )

      Can't. GL domain registration requires at least 3 letters.

      Also, their domains apparently cost $95 per year, which seems a little steep.

  • Unique feature (Score:4, Funny)

    by RichardDeVries ( 961583 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @06:39PM (#33753896) Journal
    goo.gl shortens goo.gl url's as well! No, I will not write an evil script. Someone has to do the 'No Evil', right?

    • goo.gl shortens goo.gl url's as well! No, I will not write an evil script. Someone has to do the 'No Evil', right?

      I certainly wouldn't click on goo.gurl [slashdot.org] ! Or would I?!

  • Do not want (Score:2, Funny)

    by Yvan256 ( 722131 )

    The last thing the world need is yet another semisolid fat for food preparation.

    Wait, what's the subject again?

  • Shortfight! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) * on Thursday September 30, 2010 @06:49PM (#33753990) Homepage Journal

    I've always preferred SoCuteURL [socuteurl.com]. It makes URL's that are sometimes short, sometimes long, but always a lot easier to retype (say, from a text message) than a computer-generated hash. For example, I've got a better chance of telling someone how to type in socuteurl.com/yappypupperpig [socuteurl.com] (so cute u r l dot com slash yappy pupper pig) than I do goo.gl slash anything.

    Of course, I also have a soft spot in my heart for http://urlshorteningservicefortwitter.com/ [urlshorten...witter.com] -- but they refuse to "shorten" http://goo.gl/ [goo.gl] for me, saying "This URL has been rejected to prevent the universe from collapsing on itself."

    • I'd like if people just shortened them on sites while still keeping them as meaningful as possible. It's a fine like to walk though.
      • Part of the problem is that people started storing huge amounts of crap in the URL for a dynamically created page. URLs weren't really ever intended for that sort of misuse, at least not in olden times. Result you get these ridiculously long URLs which are tough to deal with and easy to goatse people with.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by socsoc ( 1116769 )

        There's been some attempts at this. Like link rel="shorturl" href="example.org/1234"

        Nobody's really taken advantage of the sites that have implemented it though.

  • tr.im was a great URL shortener, too bad they aren't open for business any more. Not only that but tr.im is a much more descriptive name than bit.ly as far as what it does.

  • Keep working? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Leebert ( 1694 ) * on Thursday September 30, 2010 @06:55PM (#33754042)

    and it will keep working

    Like Wave, right?

    • Re:Keep working? (Score:4, Informative)

      by deinol ( 210478 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @07:09PM (#33754122) Homepage

      and it will keep working

      Like Wave, right?

      You realize that while they stopped development of further wave features, it is still available and functioning for anyone who wants to use it?

      • You realize that while they stopped development of further wave features, it is still available and functioning for anyone who wants to use it?

        So, how long will that last?

        Actually, I think I finally saw a use case for Wave the other night. There was an earthquake here (rare in NH) and a WTF-fest broke out on 3 or 4 of the first Facebook comments in my social network, several referencing Twitter searches.

        I *think* this is what Wave is for. I'm still not sure, though.

      • Once Google decides Wave is dragging themselves down, it will optionally disappear, just like old YouTube profiles [mashable.com] and Blogger FTP [blogger.com].

      • Google Wave is functioning _as of right now_. What about in two years?

        The cancelled the "any URL to RSS" feature in Google Reader yesterday. I was told about this... yesterday. Yay for giving me time to set up a different system!

    • I know it was mostly for the humor (and it was funny), but Wave is a project that never left "alpha", must less ever came close to "beta". Goo.gl, on the other hand, is official, live, and supported. When they say it'll stay, I'm pretty sure they mean it.

  • FOR FREE OMG (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Punto ( 100573 ) <puntobNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday September 30, 2010 @07:02PM (#33754094) Homepage

    this reminds me of the old "subscribe to my free newsletter". who the hell pays for an URL shortener in the first place?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      You do, of course. Google (or whoever) gets to know where you're going and what you're looking at. Same as all Google's other free services - ads and tracking.

      Now, the question is, does being default search engine on Android justify it's cost? Particularly when you'd probably be default search engine anyway? Or is Google going to have to do something evil?

  • TinyURL (Score:5, Informative)

    by klui ( 457783 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @07:03PM (#33754100)
    I prefer TinyURL because it can give me a preview of the expanded URL.

  • the good shortened URLs are already gone (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I wrote a script that would keep re-submitting my URL until I ended up with goo.gl/R2D2, but found out it was already used. I think I'll make a mosaic of the 23,864 QR barcodes on the side of a building somewhere as a social commentary.

  • Google chrome provides security warning while trying to navigate to suspicious site. Will this be available while generating/clicking shortened link from any browser - I mean independent of browser capability and settings?

  • Still not as good as shadyurl :

    http://5z8.info/bomb-plans_p7p8n_stalin [5z8.info]

  • Someone please tell Professor X to "Find all the URL shorteners, and destroy them."

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @08:46PM (#33754784)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • McAfee has one too... http://mcaf.ee/ [mcaf.ee] Not that I would trust them any more than the other url shorteners, but they claim to protect against malware too. Heck, any website administrator who is bored can set one up on their existing domain without a cute URL.

  • Still less reliable than a real URL (Score:4, Insightful)

    by noidentity ( 188756 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @09:02PM (#33754852)

    With goo.gl, every time you shorten a URL, you know it will work, it will work fast, and it will keep working. You also know that when you click a goo.gl shortened URL, you're protected against malware, phishing and spam using the same industry-leading technology we use in search and other products.

    It's still less reliable than a URL to the actual page, and can still be used to trick people into visiting sites they would not want to visit if they knew the URL. And remember, these shorteners should only be used when a short URL is needed. Anywhere you can embed a link, it doesn't matter if it's ridiculously long [abcdefghij...fghijk.com]. Only where the URL itself must be included as plain text does its length even possibly matter.

  • blah (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bob0the0mighty ( 904854 )
    http://goo.gl/SEJS [goo.gl] http://goo.gl/GpGu [goo.gl] http://goo.gl/C5a8 [goo.gl]
  • ...it has link customization, i.e. with bit.ly, it will assign me a link but then I can change it to something like "Bourdain1" which is easier to read off the phone and type in then some random, albeit short, alphanumeric characters
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • In this day of drive by attacks... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @10:32PM (#33755328) Journal

    I find url shorteners to be dangerous. You don't know that it links to. And I find that everyone seems to use them, even the security "professionals" that it really makes no sense.

    While I understand how handy they are when you need to share a link with someone in voice or something. But I never click on them from articles or anything. I refuse.

    Imagine the Internet is a gun. URL Shorteners are the chambers. A bad link is the bullet.

    Now imagine that gun is pointed at your head, and everytime you click on a shortened URL, you are pulling the trigger.

  • Ahh, but does it protect you from. . . (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JSBiff ( 87824 ) on Thursday September 30, 2010 @10:36PM (#33755346) Journal

    goatse, tubgirl, etc?

    I can't imagine they could possibly protect you from every possible. . . undesirable thing that someone might create a shortened link to.

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