Google ending goo.gl service

*originally posted on our WA blog 4/1/18

It's a sad day......or is it?

If you have done ANY affiliate marketing, one of the many services you have most likely used is a link shortening service like Goo.gl, ow.ly, or Bitly to help in shortening & tracking your links. I personally prefer Bitly because of its tracking capabilities, specifically the ease of use and dashboard functionality, but shortening is shortening when it comes down to it. The service that Google launched in 2009 is on borrowed time according to an announcement from the world’s largest search engine.

If you are currently using goo.gl, you have a year….kind of. So the announcement basically says as of April 13th of this year, Google is preventing new users who have not used the service before March 31st, to begin new accounts/setup links; current users will be unable to access any sort of support but will have complete access to the service for another year (March 30, 2019). BUT as it seems Google always does, it ends with a twist. After 3/30/2019, “….services will be dismantled, existing URLs will still redirect to the appropriate location.

When you boil it all down, users are losing support, something they didn’t have anyway, access to the WORST dashboard of the 3 most popular services, and the ability to create new links.

In closing, use Bitly or switch to FDLs.