In 2009 Google launched its public URL shortener, goo.gl, which assisted users to shorten long web adresses. Now the search giant has announced a new URL shortcut, g.co, which will only link to official Google products and services.

URL shorteners, including goo.gl and bit.ly, are very useful in that they enable companies and users in creating a shorter URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or web addresses, which are easier to remember and to share.

The problem with these though, is that they can be exploited by hackers and the like to redirect users to a website with malware or viruses on. Google users, however can rest assured that it is only Google itself that will be able to create g.co shortcuts and that these will only be employed to send users to webpages owned by Google.

The company has stated that goo.gl will continue to be its public URL shortener, which any user can utilise to shorten URLs across the web.

“We’d like to thank our friends at .CO Internet SAS who operate .co domain names for facilitating the acquisition of g.co, and keep your eyes open as we start rolling out g.co as our official URL shortcut for Google websites,”  Gary Briggs, Google’s VP of consumer marketing, posted on the company’s official blog.

 

Google also recently announced the latest version (3.2) of its Android mobile operating system (OS), along with its updated software development kit (SDK) toolset.