After a brief disappearance, short URLs are back in Google Maps. This was one of the most popular experiment from Google Maps Labs and it's now a standard feature. Just click the link button next to the search box and click the "short URL" checkbox. The new short URLs use g.co, a domain
recently acquired by Google. All the URLs that start with "http://g.co" send you to Google domains, while
http://goo.gl/ continues to be a public URL shortener.
Google Maps is the service that generates very long URLs with many unnecessary parameters, so the short URLs are useful not just for posting a Twitter message or sending a text message, but also for writing an email, a comment on a blog post or for adding a Google Maps URL to a document. Google Maps also needs to automatically change the URL from the address bar, so that you don't have to use the permalink button.
{ via
Google LatLong }
The URL will never be changed automatically in the address bar because the URL for every single location, zoom level, what have you, is different.
ReplyDeleteIf they generated a distinct goo.gl URL for every single image they show in the maps window they'd run out pretty quick.
Waiting to get my Google+ profile url as http://g.co/+/remiz :)
ReplyDeleteRemiz, genius actually. Tell google about that!
ReplyDeleteFinally!
ReplyDeleteSmart move on the part of google! At last!
ReplyDeleteFinally, a smart move!
ReplyDelete@anonymous
ReplyDeleteI think the author is referring to the long address rather than the g.co version. Currently when you would like to share the long URL with others, you can't just copy and paste the browser's address bar as it would only show the initial query and does not update when you have changed views in the map. So you have to go to permalink to get the accurate link every time you want to share your current view. It would be useful if the address bar actually reflects the current view, the way gmail, facebook etc do.
at last a great improvement... the day when i have to copy and paste a long url is over... way to go google... maybe Google should elaborate more on this...but i seem not to find this info in goole official website. :-0
ReplyDeleteDoesnt look like they could get much shorter than g.co!
ReplyDeleteI've seen at least one phishing email using a goo.gl redirect trying to get credit car details - at least Google will be keeping this short url private.
Hey, seems like they are not working today? I click the box for shortURL and nothing happens.
ReplyDeleteSorry guys but i agree with the comment above me. It's not working. Can someone please tell me if this has been implemented already?
ReplyDeleteThey work, I just used them, and its cool, urls are unimaginably short though :)
DeleteDoesn't work for me either. Never worked!
ReplyDeleteI think this was a good move by Google. They certainly tested it enough.....
ReplyDelete