The time has come. Google has confirmed the final date on which thousands of links to websites will stop working once and for all. From that moment on, those web addresses will give errors and will no longer work, so we must prepare before that happens so that there is no online chaos that generates bad impressions.
The end of Google shortened links, which for years used the goo.gl structure, will officially take place on August 25, 2025. Before that date, the company already intends to implement a warning system so that no one is surprised next year.
A change that comes from afar
Google has been warning about the end of the use of these links for some time now. The first time it said it would stop using them was back in 2018, so we can’t say that it should surprise us. The entity has tried to abandon this system even though, in the past, it had become one of the norms for many of the people who shared web addresses.
Like services like TinyURL, Google’s tool transformed an original link into a shortened version with the name goo.gl. This allowed users to access web pages in a very simple way and not have to write or copy long addresses to access all kinds of places. It was very useful on social networks, but it is also true that it had a certain risk factor as any type of address could be hidden inside the shortener.
The notice we will see soon
From August 23 of this year 2024, almost a year until the end of Google shortened links, we will see an alert message that will appear every time we use one of them. In it, you will see a notice informing how, from August 25, 2025, the link in question will no longer work. After displaying it, the address will lead to the destination page to which it should have led.
Google says that for now, this warning message will only be displayed on a percentage of links, but that as we get closer to 2025, the number will increase. The company doesn’t want anyone to find that their links stop working and end up giving errors. Therefore, it asks webmasters and people who are still using them to update them as soon as possible to avoid problems. After August 25, 2025, all shortened links that were being used with Google’s system will give a 404 error and the user will not reach the destination they expected.
They also mention that, due to the inclusion of this notice, some problems could occur with existing links. For example, those who are using 302 redirects could find that users can no longer reach the websites in question. To get around this type of problem, what Google mentions is to add “if=1” to the links in question. In any case, at the user level none of this should worry you.
What is worth knowing is that if many web addresses do not work for you after August 25, 2025, it will simply be for this reason. Of course, Google wants to minimize problems and, therefore, provides more than a year of additional margin for the relevant change to be made.
