Google’s URL Shortener platform ‘goo.gl’ will no more be available starting 13 April 2018. Existing users will still be able to shorten their URL and view their analytics data through the same platform for one more year until March 30, 2019 when the platform will be officially discontinued.
Google URL Shortener is a feature of Google Inc that allowed users and non-users to shorten links and was useful when advertising links on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The platform was launched in 2009 in a bid to facilitate the sharing of links while allowing registered users to measure their online data traffic. Additional URL shortening services then popped up and drastically changed the way internet users found content on the World Wide Web from desktop webpages to apps, mobile devices, etc…
Google announced via a blog post that they are replacing the URL Shortener with Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL), which are smart URLs designed to allow users sending existing or potential users to any location within an iOS, Android or web platform. They also informed that while goo.gl will eventually end, the existing links are still going to redirect users to the intended location.
Google also encouraged its users to use alternative URL shortener platforms such as Bitly and Ow.ly if they still want to create short links for their platforms. Otherwise, Google is recommending its users to use Firebase Dynamic lInks (FDL), which is a system that will automatically detect the user’s platform and send the user to either its web page or the app.