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Google URL shortener available to the public

goo.gl

11–20 of 126 posts

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#11
post #9

Why do we need url shorteners again ? When I see a shortened URL the probabilities of me clicking the link go down to almost zero.

We don't need them. Companies that create the shorteners need them to collect information about who clicks on your links. That, and there's a service out there that limits updates to 140 characters.

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#12
[edit - Nevermind, solved below in the comments.] Does anyone know how these work long-term? This one shortens a URL to 4 characters, so for a potentially major URL shortener, there is a relatively low number of possible outputs.

Once they hit their limit, do they start erasing the oldest ones? The most inactive ones?

For shorteners that give consistent shortened URLs (i.e. everytime you shorten the same input URL, you get the same shortened output URL), how do they deal with hitting their maximum?

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#13
post #7

Ugh. Google entering this pretty much wipes out the space - companies like bit.ly are going to need to work on seriously differentiating themselves from the pack, and even then I don't think they're long for the world. I can honestly say I hope to never be in a market - or working on a product - where google suddenly decides to enter the game. Even if their offering sucks, or is broken, it sucks all the air out of th…

I don't think anyone really believed that something you can hack together in twenty minutes, where your business plan is completely based on "for as long as Twitter doesn't do one", really counts as a "space". Anyone who invested in it deserved to get burned.

bit.ly were working on partnerships with publishers as their means of getting some monetization, but that's all I've really seen.

I'd prefer the Google one to the others, because at least I have some guarantee that the Google one won't go away.

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#14
post #9

Why do we need url shorteners again ? When I see a shortened URL the probabilities of me clicking the link go down to almost zero.

I had the same question. Until last week when I sent out a link to a google spreadsheet, and my awesome Navy Marine Corps Intranet Windows XP/Outlook 2007/Exchange system broke the link across two lines (but only after it was sent), and then every single recipient (about 100 physicians) said they couldn't see the document. I now use tinyurl.

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#15
post #7

Ugh. Google entering this pretty much wipes out the space - companies like bit.ly are going to need to work on seriously differentiating themselves from the pack, and even then I don't think they're long for the world. I can honestly say I hope to never be in a market - or working on a product - where google suddenly decides to enter the game. Even if their offering sucks, or is broken, it sucks all the air out of th…

I rarely use shorteners, so excuse my ignorance here, but what does Google offer here that bit.ly doesn't? Why would I switch to Google after using bit.ly for a long time?

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#16
post #7

Ugh. Google entering this pretty much wipes out the space - companies like bit.ly are going to need to work on seriously differentiating themselves from the pack, and even then I don't think they're long for the world. I can honestly say I hope to never be in a market - or working on a product - where google suddenly decides to enter the game. Even if their offering sucks, or is broken, it sucks all the air out of th…

What historical evidence is there for this? In every case I can think of in which a Google product supplanted an established competitor, it's been pretty clear that it did so through merit. As a converse example, I don't see Google Finance establishing any obvious position of dominance. Google has had no lack of failed products.

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#18

[edit - Nevermind, solved below in the comments.] Does anyone know how these work long-term? This one shortens a URL to 4 characters, so for a potentially major URL shortener, there is a relatively low number of possible outputs. Once they hit their limit, do they start erasing the oldest ones? The most inactive ones? For shorteners that give consistent shortened URLs (i.e. everytime you shorten the same input URL, y…

Once the 4-character paths are saturated they'll probably simply move to 5-characters. With respect to goo.gl, the help page lists these features:

Immutable - once created by you, no one else can change them

Irrevocable - once created, they do not expire.

I think that most large shorteners don't automatically expire links. It would be pretty miserable if they did.

Re: Google URL shortener available to the public

#20

I wonder what the web will be like in 10 years when most of these URL shorteners don't exist anymore and we're just left with a web full of links that go nowhere. I'm sure the Google one will survive, seems like we shouldn't have to use these URL shorteners at all though.

i agree with you, but how many of those unshortened links do you think will exist 10 years from now? i think the web is like a brain in which memory is active, not static. it`s just a bit too young for that to be obvious.
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