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Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

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Re: Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

#11

Post by izietto »

gaius wrote: post #3

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

I use them to share maps links on chat, for example this:

https://goo.gl/maps/6zJsoaCTgTD2

is much better than this:

https://www.google.it/maps/place/Presidio+di+Francavilla+Fon...

Re: Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

#12

Post by cdax »

gaius wrote: post #3

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

They’re also good for including in SMS text messages. Or print media. Or for typing into browsers on devices with sub-optimal keyboards (from my own experience, I can think of the Xbox and the Kindle)

Re: Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

#14

Post by foobarbecue »

discreditable wrote: post #9

PSA: You can make your own (relatively) shorter URLs if you're willing to guess at how to un-pretty site's URLs. My most common one is Amazon. Most URLs are amazon.com/dp/xxxxxxxxxxxxx. Knowing that you can take a nasty URL like: https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE... and change it to: https://amazon.com/dp/B00EHBERSE That's 122 chars to 32 chars. This kind of tactic works for tons of sites.

Or just use http://a.co/gVf3K0x ...

Re: Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

#15

Post by endisukaj »

bo1024 wrote: post #10

> To refocus our efforts, we're turning down support for goo.gl over the coming weeks and replacing it with Firebase Dynamic Links[1] (FDL). Hmm, so replacing something simple and straightforward with something incredibly complicated aimed at a different use case... [1] https://firebase.google.com/products/dynamic-links/

That's Google for you!

Re: Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

#17

Post by dbg31415 »

gaius wrote: post #3

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

Situations where I want users to go to a long URL but they need to type it, or tracking. I want to know how many times my CraigsList ad was viewed, easy I'll just use a short URL for the image and see how many times the image got loaded.

Re: Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

#18

Post by neya »

gaius wrote: post #3

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

One of the main use cases, and many vendors still do pitch this as a selling point - Analytics. You can put in custom tracking code (www.example.com/landingpage?utm_campaign=xyz&utm_source=abc) and share the same link (eg. a blog post) on different channels (facebook, email, youtube, etc) with different tracking parameters on the fly, so your analytics software can easily pick it up.

Re: Tell HN: Goo.gl (Google link Shortener) is shutting down

#20

Post by dbg31415 »

onychomys wrote: post #16
gaius wrote: post #3

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

I use my favorite one just for the laughs: http://www.shadyurl.com

* Kilobytely: The URL Lengthener || http://kilobytely.com/

http://kilobytely.com/sh6vk9ync1qf4tnc1qf4ti7wlazowlazod2rg5...

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