Google backtracks on plans to deactivate shortened goo.gl links

Google is largely reversing course on its plans to discontinue support for all shortened goo.gl URLs on August 25th. Goo.gl URLS that already show a message saying that they will be deactivated in August will still stop working — the company started showing the deactivation message nine months ago on URLs that “showed no activity in late 2024” — but otherwise, “all other goo.gl links will be preserved and will continue to function as normal,” Google announced on Friday.

Google, which stopped letting users make goo.gl URLs in 2019, initially announced the August 25th deactivation deadline in July 2024. At that time, the company said that existing URLs saw “less and less traffic as the years went on” and that more than 99 percent of the URLs “had no activity in the last month.” But in its Friday post, Google said that “we understand these links are embedded in countless documents, videos, posts and more, and we appreciate the input received.”