Following a round of criticism from experts earlier this year, Google has backtracked on plans to discontinue support for all its goo.gl URLs.
Google announced it would discontinue support for goo.gl URLs in late August of this year. These are links created by Google URL Shortener, a link shortening service broadly comparable to tools like Bitly, TinyURL, Rebrandly, and Ow.ly, which are often used by people working on short-form content where space is limited. Google URL Shortener was first rolled out in 2009, when Twitter (now X) enforced strict character limits.
James Foote, technical director at SEO firm Polaris Agency, told PCMag at the time the move could result in over 280 million dead links if developers failed to update their URLs, leaving users with nothing but 404 errors.
“This level of ‘link rot,’ as it’s affectionately known, could create a significant low-value computational cost for Google,” Foote told PCMag. Echoing the experts’ concerns about “link rot,” Google acknowledged these links are “embedded in countless documents, videos, posts and more.”
But instead of implementing a full shutdown, Google has instead opted for a mixed approach: some of these links will be deactivated, while others that have been relatively recently used will live on. Links that showed no activity in late 2024 will be deactivated, while those that did will remain usable.
Recommended by Our Editors
If you need to find out whether your link will remain live, visit the link in question. If your link then redirects you to the message “This link will no longer work in the near future,” it will be deactivated on August 25, 2025. If not, Google says the link will be preserved and continue to function as normal.
Though goo.gl URLs may have been saved from a trip to the Google Graveyard, many of Google’s other tools that may have passed their sell-by date have made the trip this year. In June, Google killed off Android Instant Apps, a feature from 2017 which offered users a way to try out certain apps without fully downloading them, after faster mobile downloads made full installs almost as easy.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
About Will McCurdy
Contributor
