URL Shorteners Are Poison for the Web

bpavuk | 4 points

Ref. the shutdown of goo.gl (from: https://blog.google/technology/developers/googl-link-shorten...)

<quote> Nine months ago, we redirected URLs that showed no activity in late 2024 to a message specifying that the link would be deactivated in August, and these are the only links targeted to be deactivated. If you get a message that states, “This link will no longer work in the near future”, the link won't work after August 25 and we recommend transitioning to another URL shortener if you haven’t already.

All other goo.gl links will be preserved and will continue to function as normal. To check if your link will be retained, visit the link today. If your link redirects you without a message, it will continue to work. </quote>

Since they are retaining some links (meaning they need need to maintain that system) I wonder what volume of "inactive" links we're talking about here. It's also kinda strange they couldn't add a "please retain this link" button on that redirect page.

Ongoing effort to archive links: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44684119

olejorgenb | 12 hours ago
[deleted]
| a day ago