How to get a URL shortened with Google's URL Shortener Reactivated?

July 1, 2015 3:25 AM

A few months a ago I shortened a URL wit the Google URL Shortener (https://goo.gl/[etc] and distributed it to a small handful of people. As recently as two weeks ago, it continued to work just fine.

Additionally, the original long URL is valid and still works.

As of yesterday, the shortened URL it no longer works at all and links to a 404 page.

Is there any way to get my shortened URL working again?

It does not link to any kind of spam, porn, etc. but simply to a photo album.

posted by imjustsaying to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

Google's spam detection algorithm may have erroneously marked the URL as spam and deactivated it. You can request that they reactivate it in this topic on the Google URL Shortener forum.
posted by neushoorn at 4:11 AM on July 1, 2015

You can do the request in that topic linked by neushoorn, but don't hold your breath. I think Google's URL shortener is slowly dying, or at least support for it is dying (which may be the same thing). The help forum is full of questions about problems that are unanswered, and the goo.gl page has not been updated in a long time (it still has the old style interface). I'd switch to something else, or send out the full URL.
posted by bluefly at 6:02 AM on July 1, 2015