Google Just Spared Some goo.gl Links From 2025 Shutdown - Is Yours Safe?

Google will keep active goo.gl links working beyond the previously announced cutoff of 25 August 2025. The update, published on 1 August 2024, preserves any redirect that still receives clicks while allowing the company to retire dormant links.

Key points

• Only goo.gl URLs with recent traffic will remain online after 25 August 2025.
• Links that trigger the browser warning “This link will no longer work in the near future” must be migrated before the deadline.
• About 99 percent of stored goo.gl addresses already receive no visits, according to Google.
• The shortener has been closed to new URLs since 2018, and Google is not promoting a replacement.

Background

Introduced in 2009, goo.gl gave marketers a simple way to generate short links and track clicks inside Google Analytics. Google halted new sign-ups in 2018 in favor of Firebase Dynamic Links.

The company originally announced on 18 July 2024 that every goo.gl redirect would stop working on 25 August 2025. Feedback from publishers and developers led to the partial rollback two weeks later. Google said many legacy links appear in documentation and marketing assets that are difficult to update.

Google has not disclosed the exact traffic threshold it uses to classify a link as active. Owners will see the shutdown banner in their browsers if a link is scheduled to expire; no separate email notifications are planned. Analytical data for links that continue to resolve will remain available.

Impact for marketers

Maintaining only high-use redirects lets Google reduce infrastructure load while preventing widespread link rot. Marketers relying on dormant goo.gl URLs should migrate them to another shortener before August 2025 to avoid broken references in campaigns, social posts, or archived content.

Source

Google Developers Blog, 1 August 2024 - announcement explained