Google makes goo.gl public, and why it's better for businesses

October 1, 2010 · by Miyuru Sandaruwan · in

Google today made public it’s goo.gl URL shortener. The project, which has so far been only available for Google projects and applications – is now available for everyone.
What are the main features, tricks and how does goo.gl beat others as a business friendly URL shortener ?

The following are the key features of goo.gl which Google boast.

  • Stability – Google claims the service has had near 100% uptime since it’s launch.
  • Security – Google has added the same spam detection technology which is available in GMail to goo.gl
  • Speed – The service has reportedly doubled its speed since launch

These features are no less than excellent and makes goo.gl a perfect URL shortener, as those are the answers to exact same issues most URL shorteners have suffered from. And coming from Google home, one can be quite assured that goo.gl will not close down anytime soon.

But that is not all, there are two hidden features that will be very attractive to businesses, specially airlines

1. Automatic QR code generation

Let’s take the URL goo.gl/Nq3P for an example. This leads to the webpage about how I ran this website solely using a mobile phone.
Simply add .qr to the end of the URL ( http://goo.gl/Nq3P.qr ), and you will get a QR Code generated automatically, which you can use to enable your customers to easily access the webpage from their mobile phones.

2. Easy analytics display
Simply add. .info to the end of your URL, and you can view the visitor analytics for your short URL.
This is a feature which goo.gl competitor bit.ly already offers. But as opposed to the simple visitor count offered by bit.ly, goo.gl offers advanced analytics featuring

  • i. Referrers
  • ii. Countries
  • iii. Browsers
  • iv. Platforms

And better yet, it’s totally free. Google also plans to open up the goo.gl API in the near future, enabling you to apply goo.gl from your own applications themselves. Save for API, there are no other competing free URL shorteners which offer this level of business friendly features.

The downside with goo.gl is that, Google can collect data about your shortened URLs. But, this is the case with any URL shortener service, and coming from a reputed company as Google – you will be able at least trust them more. One might wonder if Google might use these data to alter PageRank, but there is no confirmation on this yet.

The ability to generate QR codes with one click will be very helpful to airlines and airports to easily direct travellers to a compatible mobile website.

Which other uses do you see from goo.gl that can help businesses ?