Google Unveils goo.gl URL Shortening Service 242
Posted
by
timothy
from the boiling-a-frog-in-google dept.
from the boiling-a-frog-in-google dept.
eldavojohn writes "The Sultan of Search is unveiling a new service (currently only available for Google Toolbar and Feedburner) that will tackle a very old problem usually solved by bit.ly or tinyurl — URL shortening. Now, we've heard cries for sanity to prevent potential issues (like what if tr.im had shut down and broken millions of links?) but with one of the goliaths of the industry jumping in the ring it looks like URL shortening is here to stay. And a quick note for people who enjoy privacy, goo.gl explicitly states: 'Please note that Google may choose to publicly display aggregate and non-personally identifiable statistics about particular shortened links, such as the number of end user clicks.' You didn't think Google was going to sit back and let bit.ly harvest juicy data on 2.1 billion links that were clicked in November without trying to corner some of that action to make their ad suggestions more accurate, did you?" Google's shortening service is called Goo.gl.
What do you mean? (Score:2, Funny)
Animal or vegetal shortening?
Re:You guys missed one tiny, important detail... (Score:5, Funny)
See? I can also miss one tiny, important detail!
Oh crap, I hope I don't start writing for Slashdot...
Re:Other services work fine (Score:5, Funny)
i 4 1 wl b avoiding ths. XStng sRvcs wRk fine & this is 1 mr way goo.gl headed 2wrds Nfo omnisns
There! Shortened that for you!
Nope, still too long. (Score:4, Funny)
I, for one, will not be satisfied until my URLs are compressed as a super positions of themselves and stored in qubits.
Perhaps Google can use one of their quantum computers to appease me.
Re:Nope, still too long. (Score:4, Funny)
Using that new service will require a quantum leap of faith.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
Here's your answer: http://bit.ly/4kb77v [bit.ly]
Re:You guys missed one tiny, important detail... (Score:5, Funny)
Hang on. He only proved that he can't read, we need proof that he can't write either before Slashdot hires him..
Best viewed through Google Goggles (Score:3, Funny)
This seemed utterly rubbish to me until I put on my Google Goggles. Now everything looks awesome.
Re:You guys missed one tiny, important detail... (Score:3, Funny)
Hang on. He only proved that he can't read, we need proof that he can't write either before Slashdot hires him..
Well the offer is only for a junior position, so he can't be expected to both not be able to read and not be able to write. Just one of those skills is a requirement for this entry level position. However with the excellent in-house training available at Slashdot, I'm sure his writing skills will start to degrade in mere weeks - if not days
Re:Is this really a problem? (Score:5, Funny)
Long links in twitter messages significantly reduce the amount of available characters.
Google is really going to look foolish when my new, extensible length twitter service comes out. This new service will allow arbitrary length messages and thus totally eliminate the need to link shortening.
Although I haven't yet named my new service, I am leaning towards calling it "eMail", but I need to check if that name has already been taken.
Re:Tweak.tk wins the shortening war! (Score:2, Funny)
My URL shortening system is called JFGI (or JFBI if you prefer Bing).
Four characters. Beat that!
Btw, I have a submarine patent on the three characters FGI, and also the two character GI, which is more polite, but doesn't have the same level of exasperation with the recipient.
The big win is that you can safely use the above system at work, whereas because shortened URLs are inherently masking the destination, you cannot trust such a link, and thus must therefore never click on it in a work place, in case someone has linked to something abhorrent and vile, like foxnews.com.
Re:Where there go my business plans (Score:5, Funny)
Well you could always start a Nigerian company called bi.ng ?
Google Gibraltar (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
Rick rolling is nothing compared to that time someone posted a url to the FBI site on Slashdot.
Url had a GET message confessing to having a hard drive full of CP, and it got modded +5 funny.
Re:Other services work fine (Score:5, Funny)
"Coozy Pumpkins" sounds a hell of a lot worse to me... If that's a euphemism for anything I don't want to know.
Re:Why? (Score:2, Funny)
Rick rolling is nothing compared to that time someone posted a url to the FBI site on Slashdot.
Url had a GET message confessing to having a hard drive full of CP, and it got modded +5 funny.
Do you have a link to the post?
Re:Other services work fine (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Where there go my business plans (Score:3, Funny)
Well you could always start a Nigerian company called bi.ng ?
Great idea. You'd probably make US 20,000,000 million dollars and need to find some helpful person in a Western country to move it out of Nigeria. I'm sure you would be willing to pay a 10% finder's fee.