Links shortened using goo.gl will no longer work in 2025.
The Google URL Shortener It started in 2009, to make long links manageable. It was enough to enter them into Google’s abbreviation, which released a shorter one in its form. Nine years later, Google decided to, to redirect users to Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) instead. Google said at the time: “All existing links will continue to redirect to the intended destination.” However, starting August 25, 2025, links built with Google URL Shortener in the form they will not return an answer.
This will be the slow death of this service. From August 23, 2024, goo.gl links will show a percentage of users an interstitial page warning that the link’s days are numbered. As the shutdown date approaches, this percentage will increase. Once the shutdown occurs, the links will simply return a 404 response. Interstitial links can be a headache in themselves as they have every chance of disrupting the redirect process. That’s why Google advises engineers to transition these goog.gl links as quickly as possible.
But where should they be transferred? Google’s previous advice to switch to FDL may have sounded good in 2018, but the company has since declared it obsolete that feature as well, and on August 25, 2025, that service will be discontinued along with Google URL Shortener. The challenge for engineers is to track down all the places where an affected link may have been used. The so-called the problem of link rot, according to which links that may have worked before now return a 404 response – is a growing problem as the World Wide Web ages. Actions like Google’s current decision only exacerbate the problem.
Source: sg.hu
