As of April 13th, the Google URL shortener (goo.gl) is no longer available to create new short URLs. Existing short URLs create in the past will still work, but the analytics/tracking are also gone. Many of us knew that this day is coming. Google announced over a year ago that they would be retiring this tool used by so many of us for almost 10 years.
What now?
While there are quite a few free and paid URL shorteners available, Google officially recommended Ow.ly and Bitly as alternatives when the announcement was made that goo.gl would be shutting down.
Ow.ly is part of the Hootsuite dashboard and is a great choice if you are using Hootsuite. For everyone else, I am going to recommend Bitly.
Bitly is easy to use, supports custom short URLs, has a mobile app, and has extensions for both Google Chrome and Firefox. The extensions allow users to create short URLs without ever leaving a webpage. The Bitly blog has a great post that was recently updated to support users making the transition from goo.gl to Bitly.
I've used Bitly for a bit over a year now and I love it! One other alternative that many educators have been using for quite a few years is tiny.url
What URL shorteners would you recommend?
I love bit.ly! When you make an account, you can do custom URL endings, which is SO helpful, especially with students!
ReplyDeleteI use tiny.url I can easily customise the url and it is quick and easy to use. No account needed. You can also create a button in your toolbar so it automatically takes you to tinyurl.com and makes the link for the page you are on but also allows you to customise it.The main way I used goo.gl was the extension to get the QR code and so I am trialling Quick QR Code Generator.
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