Google’s goo.gl short links to break permanently from August 25

More than a decade after it launched, Google’s once-popular URL shortener goo.gl will officially stop working on August 25, 2025 — permanently breaking millions of legacy links scattered across the internet.

Any URL using the “https://goo.gl/” format will no longer redirect to its original destination. Instead, users will encounter a standard “404 Not Found” error. This marks the final step in the service’s long sunset, after being quietly deprecated years ago.

Launched in 2009, goo.gl was Google’s solution to a rapidly expanding internet — offering users a way to condense long web addresses for easier sharing across email, social media, and Google’s own platforms like Toolbar and FeedBurner. It was simple, fast, and surprisingly durable, gaining traction among marketers and developers alike.

But the internet changed.

As mobile usage surged and app ecosystems matured, Google pivoted toward Firebase Dynamic Links — a more advanced tool that offered deep linking and cross-platform tracking. Goo.gl was no longer being actively developed, and in 2018, Google stopped allowing new users to generate short links. By the end of 2019, even legacy access was closed.

Still, the links lived on — silently redirecting behind the scenes.

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Now, that quiet support is ending. Google confirmed in a 2024 blog post that more than 99% of goo.gl links had seen no activity in the prior month, signaling it was time to move on.

“Changes in how people discover and navigate online content have made legacy link shorteners obsolete,” Google said in its statement. “We want to give users time to update anything still dependent on goo.gl before the links expire.”

Starting this month, Google has begun placing warnings on some goo.gl URLs, notifying users: “This link will no longer work in the near future.”

That’s the last call. With the August 25 deadline approaching, websites, emails, documents, and marketing assets containing goo.gl links must be reviewed and updated, or risk leading audiences to a digital dead end.

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For marketers, product teams, or small businesses who still rely on these older short links embedded in blog posts or PDFs, the takeaway is clear: update now or risk losing traffic.

There are multiple alternatives available — from Bitly and TinyURL to Google’s own Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) for app developers. But the clock is ticking.

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