6 replies
Today was a bad day for me because of goo.gl

I shortened an affiliate link. I did not like the characters, it looked messy. I shortened the same URL again and I got a neat set of characters this time.

I tested it , it worked.

Then I sent an email to 17,000 people and then suddenly it did not work. Probably because it has a short version already.

http://goo.gl/5X39f - this was it.

And then I had to send another email with the correct link.

Embarrassing
#fail #googl
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Deepak Media View Post

    I shortened an affiliate link.
    Why?

    And if it's just to conceal it, don't you think that using a redirect of an unhosted .info domain-name looks more professional, as well as keeping you in control of your own business, so that if in a year's time someone clicks that link, you can still control where they end up, without being dependent on the continued goodwill, availability and reliability of a completely unnecessary third-party service? :confused:
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    Deepak, sorry to hear about that. Link shorteners can be unreliable, and these issues can and will happen. I have been using bit.ly almost exclusively for my link shortening, and thankfully they've not had any outages that have affected me (that I know of).

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by paulie888 View Post

      I have been using bit.ly almost exclusively for my link shortening
      Again, why, Paul? To put it mildly, it's not sensible at all to rely on the continued availability, goodwill, reliability and changeable terms of service of any third-party URL-shortening service.

      There were a few hundred Warriors here last year who would have told you the same when all their Tinyurl links suddenly disappeared overnight.

      And if anyone tells you that "bit.ly's not going anywhere", just invite them to read this recent post on Ben Metcalfe's blog: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe | :Ben Metcalfe Blog.

      Be in control of your own business and not dependent on unnecessary services you can't control!
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  • Profile picture of the author Caleb Spilchen
    I have a URL Shortener, but I host it myself,
    and run it myself...

    Caleb

    --

    And that makes it better for me since in the case the url messed up, I could just set up a page redirect for that page.

    This is a weird incident though
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    Canadian Expat Living in Medellin, Colombia

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  • Profile picture of the author LetsGoViral
    Originally Posted by Deepak Media View Post

    Today was a bad day for me because of goo.gl

    I shortened an affiliate link. I did not like the characters, it looked messy. I shortened the same URL again and I got a neat set of characters this time.

    I tested it , it worked.

    Then I sent an email to 17,000 people and then suddenly it did not work. Probably because it has a short version already.

    http://goo.gl/5X39f - this was it.

    And then I had to send another email with the correct link.

    Embarrassing
    Why didn't you just use your own domain and redirect from there? I wouldn't trust url shortening services, since you never know where they actually redirect the site. They might as well change your affiliate ID for their own.
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    Time of thinking is over.
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