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Google and Facebook Aim to Shorten Your URLs

- By - Source : Tom's Guide US

Because TinyURLs just aren't tiny enough.

URL shorteners can come in pretty handy if you want to Rick Roll someone, send a frenemy to any one of the horrifying mirror sites that pay homage to goatse or even, shocker, just shorten a URL. Whether it's Bit.ly or TinyURL, they're definitely useful and apparently Google doesn't want to miss out on being a part of anything that people are using on a daily basis.

Appropriately (and predictably) named Goo.gl, the URL shortener is actually bundled in with Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. Google felt the need to blog about it today to highlight all the wonderful uses for cute-as-buttons, shortened URLs.

Unfortunately, those of us who don't use Google ToolBar and FeedBurner are being cast aside, left out in the cold like Tiny Tim, Oliver Twist and all those other pathetic characters that are paraded around this time of year. If the service is successful, Google will make a stand alone version available to a wider audience.

It's up to you Google ToolBar and FeedBurner users. The rest of us are depending on you!

Check out the full post here.

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Comments

kelewan 12/15/2009 5:50 PM
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I can't tell if the shortness of the article is intentional or an (amusing) mistake.

zak_mckraken 12/15/2009 5:53 PM
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Yeah, there's short and short!

silverblue 12/15/2009 5:54 PM
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Me neither. I'm of the opinion however that neither Google nor Facebook have considered TinyURL, or they don't see it as being of any consequence (though strictly speaking, it is).

sqhacker 12/15/2009 5:55 PM
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Where did the article go rimshot.... where did the article go?

theLaminator 12/15/2009 5:56 PM
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Ummm lol is the article suppose to be so tiny?

kelewan 12/15/2009 5:56 PM
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TinyURL is going to be big (excuse the pun)

Anonymous 12/15/2009 6:01 PM
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What is going on today with the missing articles?

Did someone fall asleep at their Keyboard or what?

As to shortened Urls, that would be a bad idea as Google gets hit way too often with Search Engine poisoning as it is. With shortened Urls, Google will become too dangerous to even use as you'll be playing Russian Roulette every time you use Google.

warmon6 12/15/2009 6:07 PM
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MUAHAHA!!!! You need need a magnifying glass that can enlarge stuff by %1000000000000 to read the artical. :lol:

sliem 12/15/2009 6:46 PM
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Here's the article:

<

(use electronic microscope)

ncarlson 12/15/2009 7:51 PM
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The "

Manos 12/15/2009 7:54 PM
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I actually hit refresh on my browser cause I thought at first it hadnt fully loaded the page.. lol you witch :p

whobannedme 12/15/2009 8:08 PM
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You need an invisible screen reader to read the invisible messages.

JMcEntegart 12/15/2009 8:11 PM
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Working on it, guys. Sorry about this.

silverblue 12/15/2009 8:16 PM
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When I think of Tiny Tim I think of The Muppets' Christmas Carol and that's not pathetic at all, unless you mean "pathetic" as in weak, starving, whatever :)

JMcEntegart 12/15/2009 8:18 PM
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Sorry, guys. We had problems with our system this morning and my posts got caught in the crossfire, I guess. Should be all fixed now. Thanks for your patience.

kentlowt 12/15/2009 10:04 PM
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zak_mckraken :
Yeah, there's short and short!


Brevity is the soul of wit. Why waste my time by bloviating articles that say a lot of nothing. Make your point and move on. I personaly like it.

imapc 12/16/2009 6:48 AM
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Did this article poster just mention goatse...? Really?

TunaSoda 12/16/2009 7:56 PM
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s.o

_Cubase_ 12/16/2009 11:58 PM
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From now on, I want to simply type in "G".

JMcEntegart 12/22/2009 2:04 PM
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imapc :
Did this article poster just mention goatse...? Really?



Yes.