Google has announced that their URL shortening service Goo.gl is going to end in the future. They are going to transition the URL shortening to a new product called FDL (Firebase Dynamic Links). FDL can create smart short links that are able to send the users to any place inside an Android, iOS or web app.
Starting 13th April 2018 anonymous users won’t be able to create any new short links. Similarly, Google users who have never created the short links before won’t be able to create any new links. This will be the state quo for the next one year. After 30th March 2019, they will completely shut down Goo.gl console and nobody will be able to create any new short links. After this, all existing short links will continue to work as expected.
Google has suggested on their blog that people who want to create any new shortened links can use other popular services like Bit.ly or Ow.ly both of which require you to create a free user account before you can create short links. You can read more about this on the Google developers blog – https://developers.googleblog.com/2018/03/transitioning-google-url-shortener.html.
Since the Google blog post in the above link is reassuring again and again in the bold letters that existing short links will continue to work without problem, you do not really have to worry about your existing short URLs in your websites or blogs. But since these URL shortening services are shutting down one by one (McAfee’s Mcaf.ee was shut down recently), you may want to rethink about your existing or future short links. For example, you can try the new FDL, try moving your short links to a self-hosted platform like YOURLS or you can use a WordPress plugin to turn your own domain into a URL shortening service. And of course, you can use dozens of URL shortening services that are still available for everyone.