Google’s Goo.gl URL shortening service won’t be mistaken for Bit.ly or any of the other well-heeled URL shrinking services yet, but the search engine isn’t letting it go by the wayside.
Google, which feted Goo.gl with its own Webpage, history and analytics last September, has added a number of features users have commonly requested.
One key feature is a Google spreadsheet spam reporting form located at goo.gl/spam-report that lets users notify Google report any goo.gl links that trigger malware, phishing or spam, as well as any disabled links.
In another feature, users can now copy URLs they’ve shortened with Goo.gl to a clipboard. When a new short URL is created, the text on the page will automatically be highlighted.
Users will be prompted to press Control C on their Windows machine (or Command C on a Mac) to copy it. This will save users the two keystrokes.
Another feature helps users clean their Goo.gl dashboard so they can hide links they don’t need by checking the box next to each link.
While hidden links no longer appear in the dashboard, the Goo.gl links are still preserved online.
However, once they’ve been hidden, a user can’t bring them back to the dashboard. Users may continue to view analytics for any short URLs by appending a “+” to the end of them.
Google warned that this feature will be rolling out over the next several days, and may not work on mobile devices right away.
Google said back in September it would open up its Goo.gl API for developers to put goo.gl link shortening and analytics in their own applications, but no new word has come down from the Googleplex on that front.
Twitter created its own URL shortener, t.co, which I’m a heavy user of, and Facebook offers its fb.me tool.