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July 9, 2010

Shorter Google Maps URLs

Google Maps URLs are very long because they include a lot of parameters. They're way too long to be added to a Twitter message, a news article or a banner.

To solve this problem, Google Maps Labs added a feature called "short URLs" that shows short permalinks when you click on "Link". The nice thing about this feature is that it uses Google's URL shortening service, which is very fast, and URLs are more descriptive because they include "goo.gl" and "maps".


To get the full permalink, you need to right-click on "Link" and copy the location. Unfortunately, Google removes the embedding feature if you enable "short URLs". Maybe it would make more sense to show the short URL as an additional option.
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21 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 9, 2010 at 3:41 PM

    fantastic, I was thinking the other day how someone needs to start up a shortening service for maps, since the URL's are always absurd (I was thinking map.pl, base it out of poland. Could also sell maple syrup on the site!)

    This is much better than a third party solution though.

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  2. AndrewJuly 9, 2010 at 3:59 PM

    Good stuff - but how do these 'permalinks' work? I hear a rumour they don't use 301s - if that's true, they shouldn't be called 'perma'!

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  3. AnonymousJuly 9, 2010 at 4:06 PM

    Nice! Thanks for the heads up Alex! I just enabled this.

    I think this is the first Google uses it's on goo.gl URL shortner on its own product?

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  4. Jared DetroitJuly 9, 2010 at 11:03 PM

    I just added this. What a great feature. I can't wait until Google opens up goo.gl and lets us track statistics for our links.

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  5. Alex ChituJuly 10, 2010 at 12:15 AM

    @jasonvaritekfan:

    I think Google News was first. Share a news story, select Twitter from the list of options and you'll get a short URL that looks like http://goo.gl/news/ABCD.

    ReplyDelete
  6. DjillJuly 10, 2010 at 3:31 AM

    short URL and long one send to a different view of the map...

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  7. MichelleJuly 10, 2010 at 7:00 AM

    WoW..that was an another amazing initiative by Google...Google Rocks...

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJuly 10, 2010 at 2:07 PM

    @Alex: I see. I don't use Twitter so I didn't know about it. Cool.

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  9. EraJuly 11, 2010 at 5:05 AM

    it's a perfect services.. ty.

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  10. AnonymousJuly 11, 2010 at 3:30 PM

    Not impressed at all.
    How about fixing Google Local? That would help way more businesses and customers stuck with a broken system, old data, corrupted data including for emergency services: hospitals and shelters. Shameful.

    ReplyDelete
  11. yoginJuly 12, 2010 at 12:00 AM

    Really good. Google Maps needed a URL shortening. Google always thinks according to the people demands.

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  12. immaJuly 12, 2010 at 1:22 AM

    I always want to tweak the url before posting, so, though it's a lovely feature :-) , I will be manually shortening them when needed. Here's hoping the full url stays as an option. (showing both would be nicest)

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  13. AmyJuly 12, 2010 at 5:08 AM

    The shortened version looks pretty good..coz its gonna be hard thing for me to copy the whole URL everytime...Wonderful Google.. :)

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  14. Blackball Online MarketingJuly 12, 2010 at 6:05 PM

    The map url shortening is not exactly a watershed moment. Twitter has an auto-shortener, bitly is still available. Why the fuss?

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  15. cerita disiniJuly 13, 2010 at 1:41 AM

    why in my browser (chrome) and firefox new doesnt work,.
    ?

    ReplyDelete
  16. cerita disiniJuly 13, 2010 at 1:49 AM

    Like this :

    http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=108838211557623887509.000484ba8e4a96ae20526&z=19

    ReplyDelete
  17. LisaJuly 13, 2010 at 9:50 PM

    @ Blackball
    I agree with you..we got many url shortening tools like bitly owly tinyurl and lot more..but I guess the Google Maps URL shortening tool was integrated in the map so messing up with the URL.

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  18. CgullNovember 27, 2010 at 10:11 AM

    The short link feature doesn't work now. To make it work, I have to disable the labs feature first and re-enable it again. Then it works the first time after that it reverts back to the long annoying code. I hope Google fixes it soon.

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  19. jidanniJuly 23, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    Gone as of today.

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  20. OlivierAugust 19, 2011 at 10:00 AM

    Gone indeed. Why?
    200-char long urls are a bit of a pain to "Paste in email or IM" :/
    (GTalk does shorten the link in a smart way though.)

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousOctober 25, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    Looks like it's back, now, using "g.co" as a domain.

    ReplyDelete

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