Heads Up! Goo.gl Links Are Disappearing Soon

What happened to goo.gl?

For years, goo.gl was Google's own URL shortener: a free service that turned long web addresses (URLs) into short links such as goo.gl/AbC123. Millions of these links ended up in emails, PDFs, slide decks, printed brochures, YouTube descriptions and websites.

Google stopped making new goo.gl links years ago and announced in 2024 that all existing ones would stop working on 25 August 2025. That date has now passed, but the story ended differently from the original plan: Google changed its mind at the last minute and kept the links people were still using.

So some goo.gl links still work, and some now lead nowhere. This post explains what happened, how to tell which kind you have, and how to fix the broken ones.

The goo.gl timeline

Here's how goo.gl went from popular tool to partial shutdown:

The change of heart came because, as Google acknowledged, goo.gl links are buried in countless documents, videos and posts that can't easily be edited.

Which goo.gl links still work?

In short, it depends on whether the link was being used in late 2024.

One caveat: Google hasn't promised that the surviving links will last forever. Google stopped developing goo.gl long ago, and it could revisit the decision in future. A working goo.gl link is a link living on borrowed time.

How to check a goo.gl link

There are three easy ways to find out whether a goo.gl link still works.

1. Just click it

If the link takes you straight to a web page, it's working. If you land on an error page from Google, it has been switched off.

2. Use a link expander

A link expander follows a short link for you and shows the final destination, without your browser visiting it. Paste the goo.gl link into ExpandURL: if it shows a destination, the link is alive, and you also learn the full address it points to, which is exactly what you need to replace it.

3. Check the status code

Every web request gets a three-digit HTTP status code in reply. If you're comfortable with a terminal, the free curl tool shows it. The -I option asks only for the reply headers:

curl -I https://goo.gl/AbC123

HTTP/2 301
location: https://www.example.com.au/brochure-2019.pdf     ← still working

HTTP/2 404                                                  ← switched off

A 301 (or another 3xx code) means the link still redirects, and the location line shows where to. A 404 means "not found": the link is dead.

Fixing broken goo.gl links

Fixing a goo.gl link really means one thing: replacing it with the full address it used to point to. Before you start, it's worth knowing that the goo.gl dashboard, where people could once view their links and click statistics, closed back in 2019, so there's no list or history to download from Google.

If the link still works

1. Expand it with ExpandURL (or click it) and copy the full destination address.
2. Replace the goo.gl link in your bookmark, document or page with that full address.
3. Optionally, shorten it again with a current service if you really need a short link.

Doing this now, while the link still works, is far easier than trying to piece it together later.

If the link has already stopped working

1. Check the surrounding text. The document or post often mentions the page title, organisation or topic. Search the web for those words to find the page's current address.
2. Try the Internet Archive. The Wayback Machine keeps copies of huge numbers of web pages and redirects. Paste the goo.gl link into its search box to see whether it saved where the link once led.
3. Ask the person who shared it. If a colleague, teacher or company sent you the link, they may still have the original address.
4. Remove or replace it. If the original can't be found, delete the dead link or point to the best alternative you can find, so readers aren't left at a dead end.

For businesses and website owners

If your organisation used goo.gl over the years, links may be scattered in places you've forgotten about. A link audit, a systematic search for every goo.gl link you control, is the safest approach.

Where to look

• Your website: pages, blog posts, menus and footers.
• Downloadable files: PDFs, brochures, price lists and slide decks.
• Email: templates, newsletter archives and staff signatures.
• Social media: profile bios and pinned posts.
• Video: YouTube descriptions and on-screen text.
• Print: flyers, packaging, signage and QR codes that point to goo.gl.

Searching your website quickly

Try a search engine query such as site:yourdomain.com.au "goo.gl". If you or your web developer have a copy of your site's files, a command-line search finds every mention in seconds:

grep -rn "goo.gl" ./my-website-files

grep searches inside files; -r means "search every folder", and -n shows the line number of each match.

Fix in order of importance

1. Dead links on high-traffic pages and in current marketing.
2. Working links in places people use often, before they can break.
3. Printed material and QR codes: update the digital versions now and the printed ones at the next reprint.
4. Old archives last, as time allows.

Replacing goo.gl links with direct links also helps search engines. Each short link adds an extra redirect (a hop from one address to another) between the reader and your page; a direct link removes it.

Choosing a replacement and avoiding a repeat

If you need short links going forward, there are plenty of services to choose from, including T.LY URL Shortening, Bitly, TinyURL, Short.io and Rebrandly. Features and free plans vary a lot, and they change over time, so compare them against what you actually need: click statistics, the ability to edit where a link points, and no advertising pages for your visitors.

More important than which service you pick are the habits that stop this from happening again:

• Use full addresses where you can. In documents meant to last, such as reports, books, policies and course material, the full URL is the most durable option.
• Use your own branded domain (for example cafe.link) for short links. If your provider ever closes, you can move your domain and links to another service without breaking them.
• Keep a register of every short link and its full destination, such as a simple spreadsheet.
• Choose editable links for print, so a moved page means a quick update rather than a reprint.
• Check important links every few months.

Quick reference

For Google's own explanation, see its official announcement and August 2025 update.

Wrapping up

The goo.gl shutdown turned out to be partial rather than total, but it's a clear lesson in how fragile short links can be. Pages can be perfectly healthy and still become unreachable because the service in the middle disappears.

If you remember four things, make them these:

1. Inactive goo.gl links stopped working on 25 August 2025; actively used ones were kept, for now.
2. Check any goo.gl link by clicking it or expanding it with ExpandURL.
3. Replace goo.gl links that matter with the full destination address while they still work.
4. For future short links, use a branded domain and keep a list of where each one goes.

A quick audit today saves a lot of broken links tomorrow.