Question: Why do we have to shorten URLs?
Think: Have you sent a link in email and the recipient replied, "I could not ope the link, could you re-send?"
Answer: We shorten URLs because they become Easy to remember, Prevent link breakage, Useful in character limited sites like Twitter and they are much more cleaner, clearer and neat.
Take this example, compare these two URLs:
The two links above leads to the same destination, but, look at their lengths, which one would you prefer?
Agree with me that, the original URL is too long to fit in a single line. Now, if it is to be shared "as is", it can easily loose a letter when moving from one inbox to another thus rendering it "dead link". To prevent any unnecessary chaos to the recipient/end user/receiver of the link, we thank for abbreviated and short URL services. So, in our example above, the long URL can be shortened to just goo.gl/fb/yRVf5 making it easier to share especially if one is using social networks such as twitter or facebook where characters are limited.
Think: Have you sent a link in email and the recipient replied, "I could not ope the link, could you re-send?"
Answer: We shorten URLs because they become Easy to remember, Prevent link breakage, Useful in character limited sites like Twitter and they are much more cleaner, clearer and neat.
Take this example, compare these two URLs:
- Original & Long: http://www.wavuti.com/4/post/2010/09/kindle-ipad-competitor-blackberry-playbook-unveiled.html#axzz114sjSrBP
- Shortened: goo.gl/fb/yRVf5
The two links above leads to the same destination, but, look at their lengths, which one would you prefer?
Agree with me that, the original URL is too long to fit in a single line. Now, if it is to be shared "as is", it can easily loose a letter when moving from one inbox to another thus rendering it "dead link". To prevent any unnecessary chaos to the recipient/end user/receiver of the link, we thank for abbreviated and short URL services. So, in our example above, the long URL can be shortened to just goo.gl/fb/yRVf5 making it easier to share especially if one is using social networks such as twitter or facebook where characters are limited.
In December last year, Google introduced it's own URL shortener - goo.gl
The introduction of goo.gl saw a competetion with other widely used URL shorterners like bit.ly (common in Twitter - they also have their own URL shortener - t.co) also, worth mentioning are tinyurl.com and shorturl
In it's initial release, goo.gl was only internally integrated into other Google products such as News, Blogger, Maps, Picasa Web Albums, and Moderator, but people have been asking for a direct way to use the service. Google heard and listened and now it has given goo.gl its own website for everybody to use.
Why introduce goo.gl when there are already other URL shortening services?
I believe Google, just like any other big company, wants to have ultimate decisions for their product; own service they can control at anytime, should a problem arise. I don't think there is any big company that would 100% trust any third party application, especially in this era where phishing, scamming and security threats are high. If they can make it from the scratch, surely they won't shed any $ in trying to buy 3rd party apps.
Google says, it is intending to make goo.gl the stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web.
Read more at Google's Social Web blog (forget not to check out it's Firefox addon - goo.gl lite)
NOTE:
As said earlier, not everybody is your trusted friend online. Some people may abuse the short URL services to deceive others in order to scam or indirectly steal from them. To protect yourself from unknown dangers, you may want to uncover, unhide and unshorten any shared URL, i.e. checking for it's genuitniy. Some anti-virus programs have a service that can scan links, but if you don't have one, you can still use the online services that can do the job for you, click here to read an article I published earlier with a list of some of those webs.
The introduction of goo.gl saw a competetion with other widely used URL shorterners like bit.ly (common in Twitter - they also have their own URL shortener - t.co) also, worth mentioning are tinyurl.com and shorturl
In it's initial release, goo.gl was only internally integrated into other Google products such as News, Blogger, Maps, Picasa Web Albums, and Moderator, but people have been asking for a direct way to use the service. Google heard and listened and now it has given goo.gl its own website for everybody to use.
Why introduce goo.gl when there are already other URL shortening services?
I believe Google, just like any other big company, wants to have ultimate decisions for their product; own service they can control at anytime, should a problem arise. I don't think there is any big company that would 100% trust any third party application, especially in this era where phishing, scamming and security threats are high. If they can make it from the scratch, surely they won't shed any $ in trying to buy 3rd party apps.
Google says, it is intending to make goo.gl the stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web.
Read more at Google's Social Web blog (forget not to check out it's Firefox addon - goo.gl lite)
NOTE:
As said earlier, not everybody is your trusted friend online. Some people may abuse the short URL services to deceive others in order to scam or indirectly steal from them. To protect yourself from unknown dangers, you may want to uncover, unhide and unshorten any shared URL, i.e. checking for it's genuitniy. Some anti-virus programs have a service that can scan links, but if you don't have one, you can still use the online services that can do the job for you, click here to read an article I published earlier with a list of some of those webs.
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