Goo.gl -- Google's URL Shortener

until they launch their API, no app can officially integrate their platform in their service.

and currently, a user has to manually create the link through goo.gl and then use it.

most people would use the supported link shortening service in their twitter client.

short links are rarely used on facebook as there is no character limit so long links work just fine.

i for one find the twitter bookmarklet very handy to tweet webpages i like. but that uses t.co short link service. twitter currently does not provide ANY analytics for t.co links you generate. they are likely to offer it as a paid service in the future. they might already be offering it to their partners.

to use goo.gl... there are two methods currently...

one is to use their dashboard to create the link manually! and copy it and then post it on twitter/facebook.
use a browser extension (this is what i use!).

however, goo.gl api would soon launch and i bet google would announce partners which would include all the popular twitter clients (if they are serious about it ;) )

the aim is to take on bit.ly :)

bit.ly of course already provides a much better analytic platform for free! and the pro edition probably has tons of more features.
 
I've never used a shortner before, except what's on hootsuite. =/

But I've already thought of a couple of uses in the past few minutes.
 
They should add filters. Someone could just clickbomb it if they wanted to. I was able to make 3 pages of the same url shorten .
 
yeap. i hate the idea of goo.gl starting developing links with five alphabets in the near future. though it would eventually happen...

i have been using goo.gl for a long time now and the fact that they are still in four characters mean overall usage is low. though things are going to change now with the introduction of the dashboard. and would change massively with the introduction of the API!
 
OperaManiac said:
yeap. i hate the idea of goo.gl starting developing links with five alphabets in the near future. though it would eventually happen...

i have been using goo.gl for a long time now and the fact that they are still in four characters mean overall usage is low. though things are going to change now with the introduction of the dashboard. and would change massively with the introduction of the API!
Click to expand...
I think capitalization counts.
 
Also i've never really gotten the point of url shorteners. Isn't that the point of HTML giving us the ability to define text to represent urls. <a href="really long url here">Nice short description here</a> That way there is no limit of letters and such and it's extensible and you can actually see the url you are going to. I like social networks/ web 2.0 and the route the web is going but url shorteners have never really catched on to me.
 
yeap. the links are case sensitive.

and knowing google they are likely to last for ever.

i had bad experience with tr.im which was my favorite service a while ago.

after twitter started using bitly on their network exclusively, tr.im announced that they could not sustain.

tr.im based links online are going to work till the end of the current year. no guarantees after that!

this is one of the primary reason, i am using goo.gl for my short links because if google cannot guarantee the validity of these links... no company currently can!

though if bitly was to fail someday, it would create millions if not billions of dead links on the web!
 
Hannah_M said:
Also i've never really gotten the point of url shorteners. Isn't that the point of HTML giving us the ability to define text to represent urls. <a href="really long url here">Nice short description here</a> That way there is no limit of letters and such and it's extensible and you can actually see the url you are going to. I like social networks/ web 2.0 and the route the web is going but url shorteners have never really catched on to me.
Click to expand...

twitter made link shortening services popular. that remains the fact. you cannot use HTML on twitter. there is a strict 140 character limit.

and they are somewhat also useful to share links on instant messengers. though there is always a chance that a bot might send you a malware link through a hacked account.

they are also useful because you can use them to track the popularity of a link without digging deep into your analytic program for outgoing clicks (if they are at all recorded).

using shortlinks u can quickly see how many people click on the link you posted on your blog/forum/whereever!
 
haha if that is the case, i think 4 characters can last for pretty long. :)

http://t.co/7AwyO4h

twitter's t.co is using seven characters. i guess they can stick to this 20 character limit (along with a space) for a URL for years safely.
 
Chimpie said:
And with just four characters, taking into account lowercase and uppercase letters, no numbers, there are 7,311,616 combinations. (If I'm doing the math right.)
Click to expand...

Yep you did the math right but they are taking into account numbers so the estimated total is 14 776 336
(26 + 26 + 10)^4

If they add a 5th character its a whopping 1 billion urls - 916 132 832
 
awesome. i am now interested in knowing how many shortlinks services like tinyurl and bitly are hosting! tinyurl is really really old and bitly is really really popular.
 
I just tested this on one of my FB fan pages. I added the link to the last line of my post. When FB processed the link it found the end result just fine. And when you hover over the FB created link, it's the same goo.gl link.

See www.facebook.com/skywarnonline for an example.
 
I see people saying things like how it is followable by facebook to get the links details, how you get these stats and such, and more 'suggestions' which you've got for the service and I can't help thinking that this is what should be in a url shortener, and has been on kwn.me since day 1, I guess I just have high standards, hehe.
 
I wonder how long it takes until they allow custom domains,
but I wonder even more how long it takes until they hit critical mass and make it a redirect page, or top bar, with ads on it :p
 

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