Last week, Google announced that the end is nigh for Google URL Shortener: shortened "goo.gl" web links will stop working on August 25, 2025, except for those generated by Google's own web tools.
In the meantime, an interstitial page warning users about the upcoming linkpocalypse will begin showing on a percentage of affected links, telling visitors that the link they've clicked "will no longer work in the near future." This percentage will increase until the shutdown date. According to Google, not many people will actually see this: "more than 99%" of goo.gl links went unclicked over the past month.
This news follows the announcement back in 2018 that Google planned to discontinue the link shortening service. The company stated that "many popular URL shortening services have emerged and the ways people find content on the Internet have also changed dramatically." Google directed devs to migrate over to Firebase Dynamic Links, a service it inherited when it purchased Firebase in 2014.
- Ill-fated co-op slasher Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance disappears in February, though will still be playable solo
- GOG's bespoke cut of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall gets delisted tomorrow, so you've got a day to grab it for free as the store works out how 'to publish and maintain such projects better' in future
The only problem is that Google's deprecated that, too. It's now telling devs to use other deep-linking services for their link shortening needs, but warns of course that they haven't been vetted. The links serviced by Firebase Dynamic Links will also stop working on August 25, 2025.
The end of Google link shortening is perhaps not extremely relevant to the average PC gamer, but it's notable as an example of yet another Google service being sent to the graveyard (there's a whole website devoted to tracking them!). Here are some of our favorites, may they rest in peace:
- Google Podcasts, killed this year to make way for YouTube Music to be the one-stop shop for music and podcasts
- YouTube Originals, without which Cobra Kai might not exist in the universe
- Google Talk, colloquially Gchat, the very first Google messaging app. It allowed you to chat with anyone on any platform, even if they didn't have a Google account. It was replaced with Hangouts, which has since been replaced with… you guessed it, Google Chat
- Google Reader, killed in 2013, which was the best way to get all your webcomics in one place
And of course, we can't forget poor Stadia. Google's attempt at cloud gaming, Stadia was closed in January of last year primarily due to an inability to find market share.
