SoftwareYet another Google web service bites the dust in August when ‘goo.gl’ links will stop workingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

SoftwareYet another Google web service bites the dust in August when ‘goo.gl’ links will stop workingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Google)

A message from Google warning that goo.gl links will stop working in the near future.

In the meantime, an interstitial page warning users about the upcoming linkpocalypse will begin showing on a percentage of affected links, telling visitors that the link they’ve clicked “will no longer work in the near future.” This percentage will increase until the shutdown date. According to Google, not many people will actually see this: “more than 99%” of goo.gl links went unclicked over the past month.

This news follows theannouncementback in 2018 that Google planned to discontinue the link shortening service. The company stated that “many popular URL shortening services have emerged and the ways people find content on the Internet have also changed dramatically.” Google directed devs to migrate over to Firebase Dynamic Links, a service it inherited when itpurchased Firebasein 2014.

The end of Google link shortening is perhaps not extremely relevant to the average PC gamer, but it’s notable as an example of yet another Google service being sent to the graveyard (there’s a wholewebsitedevoted to tracking them!). Here are some of our favorites, may they rest in peace:

And of course, we can’t forget poorStadia. Google’s attempt at cloud gaming, Stadia was closed in January of last year primarily due to aninabilityto find market share.

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