The Google URL shortener was deprecated in march 2019.
There is no access to the service anymore and there is no way to create new short links or access old data for the old links.
New Alternatives to Google URL Shortener
- Flipmsg URL shortener - easy and free to use, simple with robust analytics.
- Bitly - another easy to use, and free tool
- Rebrandly - best for branded domains, available with a free account
- Sniply - multifunctional url shortener that gives you more than just basic functionality.
- tinyURL - old and trusted, free to use , doesn’t have any built-in analytics with the free version.
Flipmsg URL Shortener
You can view the Flipmsg URL shortener as the new google shortener, it gives you all the functionality goo.gl gave you and much more.
It’s the only URL shortener that allows you to drop affiliate cookies on your link visitors and build an affiliate business
How to shorten and manage your links easily
With the Flipmsg shortener you can easily create new short links.
It is highly recommended that you open a new flipmsg account , as it will help you to manage your links more easily in one place from the members area.
In the members area you can manage many links, 100 or more.
You can create a new Flipmsg account easily with one click google login button.
After you have created your account you will be able to manage all your links easily from one place, and view analytic data for each link with one single click.
Robust Free Analytics
Flipmsg shortener and Poll links give you the ability to see detailed analytics about the traffic of each of your short links.
There are many things you can see:
- You can see where the traffic is coming from, and who are the referring domains that are sending your traffic, and whether it’s direct or email traffic.
- You can also see how many clicks you received from each country.
- you can see the geolocation of your link visitors on a map chart.
- You also have a neat graph that shows you daily clicks over time (link history).
- You can see how many affiliate cookies you have dropped on your link visitors.
With Poll links you have additional info:
- How many users participated in the poll
- How many users exit the poll
- How many users chose each option/answer in the poll
What’s coming next in the analytics department?
We are going to give data on:
- Devices the users are using
- Browsers
- Screen resolution
- Operating systems
- What percentage of the traffic is desktop, mobile or tablet.
GET a Traffic Quality Score
Traffic quality score gives you an estimated score about your traffic quality.
It takes into consideration the percentage of country tiers in which the traffic originates from.
Each country associated with a tier, there are 4 tiers, tier1-english, tier1-non-english, tier2, and tier 3 countries.
You can see what percentage of the traffic is coming from each tier, and flipmsg automatically calculates the quality score for the traffic for you.
It is very useful if you are buying or selling traffic, or if you are participating in traffic exchanges of any kind.
What’s coming next in the traffic score department?
In the near future we will include:
- Bot filtering, you will be able to block bot clicks on your links, you will need to enable it
- We will take bot clicks into consideration when calculating traffic score
- We will take into consideration mobile and desktop traffic when calculating traffics core
With bot filtering and unique click and device tracking, traffic quality score will be much more accurate
Drop affiliate cookies on link visitors
And build an online business
With Flipmsg Shortener you can drop affiliate cookies on your link visitors, while redirecting them to any location on the web.
Most URL shorteners only allow you to earn per click (on average $0.016 cent).
Flipmsg allows you to accumulate referrals in an online business, and earn lifetime affiliate commissions from those referrals.
You earn from account upgrades (business account) , coins for content creators and ad credits, up to 30% commissions.
This way you earn long term from your traffic and not just a quick buck.
How does it work?
- You create a short link
- You drive traffic through the link
- You drop affiliate cookies on visitors
- Cookie is active for 60 days
- User sign up for a free flipmsg account during this time period
- He automatically joins your affiliate business as a new referral.
- You earn lifetime affiliate commissions from your referrals
How do you make money from your online business?
You make money by accumulating referrals in your business.
The more referrals you have the more earning potential you have each month.
You earn from account upgrades (business account), coins for content creators and ad credits.
Lets see an example:
If you have 1,000 referrals in your business and 2% of them upgraded to a business account you will earn $266 in that particular month.
Quick calculation:
20 leads * $13 this means you have just earned $266 in affiliate commissions.
This is $0.26 average monthly earning per referral.
A youtube channel earns $0.10 or less on average per subscriber each month.
This is not taking into consideration commissions from coins or ad credits.
You earn 30% lifetime commissions on business account upgrades.
The Story Behind Google URL Shortener Deprecation
Google created goo.gl in 2009, since then it became the most popular url shortener on the market.
In 2018 google decided to change its focus to a new service called FDL (Firebase Dynamic Links), this service is mainly used in iOS, Android and web apps.
Google closed goo.gl with a one year notice for existing users in may 2018, since then new users were not accepted, but existing users were still able to use and track their links.
In march 2019 google closed the service for good.
As you can see from the chart below , goo.gl url shortener had the biggest market share at that time.
Since then Bitly has grown its market share , and now has more than 50% market share. tinyURL is a close second with about 45% market share.
The company has claimed it closed the service because they need to shift their focus to their new project FDL.
You can read google's full statement about their shift from goo.gl to FDL here.
What to do next?
It is highly recommended that you start using the Flippmsg URL shortener. You don’t want to waste your traffic anymore.
If you are going to use a URL shortener you better create a long term asset in the process.
In addition you can use a short link in combination with polls.
This is even more powerful as it adds more functionality.
This allows you to ask questions and give users possible answers to choose from.
Conduct polls ,and redirect traffic to any location on the web based on users' answers to the poll.
See poll results in the image below
Final thoughts
Now you have a good alternative to the Google URL shortener, with better analytics, and overall functionality, you can start using it now.
