Google is changing its mind about killing off all goo.gl short links. The company had originally planned to shut them down entirely by August 25, 2025. That decision sparked concern among developers, educators, journalists, and everyday users who rely on these links across the web.
Now, just weeks before the deadline, Google is taking a softer approach. It turns out the company is only going to disable goo.gl links that haven’t seen any activity since late 2024. If your link is still being used or clicked, it should keep working.
This adjustment comes after what Google describes as community feedback. People pointed out that goo.gl links are everywhere. They show up in YouTube video descriptions, blog posts, PDFs, tweets, QR codes, printed handouts, and more. Breaking all of them would have left a mess of dead links across the internet.
Instead, Google started redirecting the truly inactive links months ago. If you click on one and it shows a warning that says, “This link will no longer work in the near future,” then it’s headed for the chopping block on August 25. But if your link loads normally, with no warning, you’re safe. It’ll stay live.
To be clear, only the links that showed no clicks or usage in late 2024 are being shut off. The rest will continue to function just fine.
As someone who cares about keeping the internet usable and historical, I think Google made the right call here. Cutting off every goo.gl link would have trashed years of content. There’s no need to break what still works.
If you’re not sure about one of your old goo.gl links, just test it. If it redirects properly without any message, you can relax. But if you see the shutdown warning, it’s time to swap it out for something new.
This might feel like a last-minute reversal, but it’s a smart one. Hopefully, next time, Google gives a little more clarity before people scramble to fix something that might not even be broken.
