Google launched updated versions of the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner that will also offer a new Google URL shortening service called the Google URL Shortener (goo.gl).

Need of goo.gl is because people share a lot of links online. This is particularly true as micro blogging services such as TinyURL and Twitter have grown in popularity. If you’re not familiar with them, URL shorteners basically squeeze a long URL into fewer characters to make it easier to share with others. For Twitter with character limits in tweets, status updates and other modes of short form publishing, a shorter URL leaves more room to say what’s on your mind — and that’s why people use them.

google toolbar

First Google offer this service only for Google Products, because they think people who use the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner will benefit from a shortener that is easily accessible
making it faster and easier to share, post and email links. Second, the’ve built this on Google’s global infrastructure to offer the following benefits:

  • Stability: Google’s scalable, multi-datacenter infrastructure provides great uptime and a reliable service to our users.
  • Security: As we do with web search, shortened URLs are automatically checked to detect sites that may be malicious and warn users when the short URL resolves to such sites.
  • Speed: At Google we like fast products and we’ve worked hard to ensure this service is quick. We’ll continue to iterate and improve the speed of Google Url Shortener.

Google URL shortener is not a stand-alone service; you can’t use it to shorten links directly. Currently, Google URL Shortener is only available from the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. If the service proves useful, we may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future.

Excited about enabling this functionality try it for Toolbar!