Long URLs are annoying and inconvenient for sharing and advertising for us all. By shortening a URL we can share a link without the URL breaking up or taking space which makes these type of utilities especially useful for Twitter and Facebook. The most popular ones such as bit.ly and TinyURL are managed by smaller companies that may not have a long life span. Google thought they would use this to their advantage.
Goo.gl was once a utility built into Google Toolbar, but as of today, Google have released their goo.gl URL shortner for use to anyone with a web browser. It comes with a simplistic interface and according to Google’s Muthu Muthusrinivasan “We don"t intend to overload goo.gl with features, but we do want it to be the stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the Web".
By using the service you will also be able to view web-based analysed charts based on your usage as well as Google using your information to determine which links are popular, unsafe and authoritative. Additionally they show when, how often, and from which computer people are clicking on your URLs.
If going to the website doesn’t interest you, perhaps a Google Chrome goo.gl extension or even the goo.gl Firefox extension will.