One of the very first posts back in 2005 on this blog was me warning about the dangers if too much knowledge (especially in e-mails, newsgroups [back then], Twitter [now], etc.) is hidden behind URL-shortening services that might
- be shut down at any time (category-1)
- be taken over by malicious actors (category-2)
And now it’s time for a Category-1 problem (again): Google’s URL shortening service goo.gl seems to be shutting down for good according to 9to5google. It was not possible to add new short-links for quite some time now, but by end of year, it seems that old links will break.
Let’s hope Google at least keeps the domain, otherwise this might turn into a category-2 problem. (The article mentions that Google will reply 404 on the links, which indicates they intend to keep the domain around at least in the beginning.)