What Is Google URL Shortener? | FREE Alternative (2021)

The google URL shortener has stopped accepting new users since april 2018 and in march 2019 it was finally deprecated. 

After google decided to shift their efforts to a new project FDL (Firebase Dynamic links)

Fortunately you have other free alternatives you can use.

In this post we will introduce you to a great alternative to the Google URL shortener.

The new service is called Flipmsg URL shortener, and it has all the functionalities you would normally have with the old google service, but it gives you even more.

It also has few other shortening companion tools like poll-links, that takes short links to the next level.

All these tools work the same, you are shortening a URL, and create a short link that you can share anywhere on the web.

Similarities between Flipmsg and the Google Shortener

1. Both are FREE
2. Both track clicks in real time
3. Both have robust analytics
4. You can see your visitors geolocation on a map
5. You can view the link click history over time
6. Both show you how many visitors you have received from each country
7. Both show you referring domains
8. You can see direct or email traffic.
9. You can manage all your links from one place

Start using the Flipmsg Shortener now

Features that Flipmsg has and Google Shortener doesn’t 

1. Segmentation to traffic tiers - your traffic is segmented to 4 tiers, tier1-english, tier1-non-english, tier2 and tier 3.
2. Traffic quality score - flipmsg automatically calculates the quality of the traffic for you
3. Special characters - you can enter any special character in the custom link name (slug)
4. Affiliate cookies - you can drop affiliate cookies on your link visitors, cookies are active for 60 days.
5. Affiliate Business - with flipmsg you can build an online business which consists of referrals.
6. Lifetime affiliate commissions - you earn up to 30% commissions from the referrals in your online business,  from account upgrades, coins and ad credits.
7. Delete your links - most URL shorteners will not allow you to delete your link, with flipmsg you can delete them at any time.
8. Change custom link name unlimited amount of times

Future Features that will be added that were not available with google

1. Bot filtering - you will be able to enable bot click filtering on your links
2. Device tracking - you will be able to see how many users are coming from desktop, mobile and tablet.
3. Changing destination after link creation - you will be able to change the destination of your link after it was created an unlimited amount of times.
4. Quality score update - will take into consideration bot clicks and devices
5. Profiles - you will be able to connect your short link to your profiles and and build a following, while redirecting traffic around the web.
6. Hour tracking - you will be able to see in what time of the day you received your clicks.
7. Longer history - tracking will be for longer periods of time
8. Alternative domain name - you will be able to choose other domain names for your short links instead of flipmsg.com 

This is only a partial list.

An Extension to the URL Shortener - Poll Links

Poll links is an extension tool for the regular Flipmsg URL Shortener, it allows you to create polls and redirect users based on their answers.

This is another alternative to the Google URL Shortener

With poll links you can:

1. Create a regular short link which also acts as a poll
2. You have the same analytics as with the regular shortener
3. In addition you have poll stats and results - see how many users participated or existed the poll, see how many users chose each option/answer in the poll (in percentages).
4. Collect feedback from your audience
5. Get a quality score for your traffic

How to shorten your URL (step by step)

1. Go to https://flipmsg.com/url-shortener.php
2. Paste your URL into the input box
3. Click on ‘make it short’

That's it, you have created your first short link with 3 simple steps.

How to Edit your link custom name (slug)

Immediately after you have created your link you can change its name by clicking on the ‘Change name’ button.

Enter a new name, if it’s available the name will be changed successfully.

How to manage and delete your links from one place

1. You will need to have a free flipmsg account
2. Signup for flipmsg free account
3. Go to ‘my short links’ section
4. Under this section you will see all your short links
5. You can view stats, delete links or change their custom name an unlimited amount of times

How to view stats for a short link

Option 1 - directly from the URL shortener main page

1. Click on the ‘view link stats’ button
2. Paste your short link
3. Click on ‘get stats’

Option 2 - from the members area

1. Login to your flipmsg account
2. Click on ‘my short links section’
3. Choose the link you are interested in
4. Click on ‘view stats’ for that link

You will automatically be redirected to the stats page , and receive full analytics for the specific link

How to create short link with a poll

What if you wanted to not only shorten your link, but also send users to a simple poll that they can fill out in under 10 seconds.

And what if , after they have  completed the poll, you can redirect them to the final required destination of your choice.

This is exactly what poll links allow you to do.

Not only that, but you can redirect users to multiple different locations, based on the user selected answer or option in the poll.

This is powerful because it allows you to segment your traffic and get feedback from your audience, while you still create a short link and redirect users to the required final destination.

Start now with poll links (It’s free)

So what poll links allow you to do?

1. Create a simple short link
2. Full analytics like the regular URL shortener
3. Custom name just like the regular shortener.
4. Manage and delete all links from the members area
5. Get feedback and survey your audience
6. Segment your audience
7. Redirect users based on an answer to a one question poll
8. Redirect users based on a selected option 
9. View stats about how many users completed the poll
10. View stats about how many users exited the poll
11. View stats about how many users selected each answer/option in the poll
12. Drop affiliate cookies for the online business, exactly like the regular shortener.

As you can see it's a very simple but powerful tool.

Create simple poll short link (It’s free)

This is how the poll analytics look like

And this is how the poll page looks like, pretty simple, one question and few options.

Conclusion

The Google URL shortener was a very popular tool, it was launched in 2009, after 10 years google decided to end it in march 30 2019.

Now you have an even better alternatives at your disposal, the Flipmsg URL shortener and poll links.

These tools do everything google did and much more.

In addition you have other options like bitly and tinyurl.

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