Google has announced a partial reversal of disabling all goo.gl shortened links, but millions would expire before August 25, 2025. In the updated statement issued on August 1, the company explained that it will only keep those links that are still actively used, and the remaining ones will stop working.
URL shortener goo.gl was once a popular tool, especially during the rise of platforms like Twitter, where character limits linked shortening to be important. However, due to the advanced version of the web and alternative services as Bit.ly and Ow.ly, Google was slowly dropping its shortener in 2018. It planned to redirect users to a warning screen in 2024 and begin turning off links completely in the middle of 2025.
Today, with much feedback, Google admits that some of these links are still embedded within some of its old blog posts, videos, documents, and social media.
The company said that it would not stop these links that are actively in use on the cut-off date. Those that have not seen any recent activity (reputedly more than 99 percent) will be disabled as scheduled.
How to check if your links are still active
To check your goo.gl link is safe, copy and paste it into your browser. It will also be active if it redirects to the targeted page. However, when you see a Google warning message, that link is likely marked as disabled.
A huge quantity of older online content and on websites where goo.gl was once a standard for link sharing may be impacted by this change. Users who use these links are advised not to delay in updating or replacing them with other short services until the end of August to avoid broken redirects.
Despite preserving some links, the overall message was clear from Google: the whole goo.gl era is ending, and it is time to move on.
