Enlisting in the Fight Against Link Rot

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Google’s shutdown of goo.gl

  • Many find it absurd that Google is turning off a tiny, read‑only key–value redirect service, especially after having stopped new links in 2019.
  • Others note Google’s updated policy: “active” links (visited in 2024) are preserved, but “inactive” ones are removed; critics argue this one-year activity window is far too short.

Security, abuse, and liability concerns

  • Several commenters argue shutdown is justified: a Google-branded open redirect is a powerful phishing tool, especially for hijacked or expired target domains.
  • Examples are given of convincing phishing emails using goo.gl to end at legitimate Google login pages.
  • Some say this risk remains even when not accepting new links, since attackers can re-register expired target domains.
  • Others counter that risk is marginal, could be mitigated by abuse reporting, warning interstitials, or limiting redirects to Google-owned links.

Cost, priorities, and trust in Google

  • Widespread skepticism that cost or engineering effort is significant; storage and maintenance are described as “rounding error.”
  • Many see it as part of a pattern: Google kills any product not making billions, eroding trust in new launches.

Archiving efforts and technical approach

  • The ArchiveTeam Warrior project is praised as easy to run and “fun to watch,” with people donating spare compute.
  • There’s debate over what it does: some say it only “rehydrates” goo.gl links found in archived pages; others state it is enumerating the entire ~230B-key space, with logs showing sequential probes.
  • At least one participant claims all at-risk URLs have already been backed up.

Data handoff to Internet Archive and privacy issues

  • Multiple commenters suggest Google should simply donate the database and/or domain to Internet Archive.
  • Pushback: targets can include “secret” or private URLs (e.g., unlisted videos, private docs), making a public dump a serious privacy and regulatory problem.
  • Some propose controlled lookup APIs or domain delegation with IA-run redirects; others say branding and security policies make that unlikely.

URL shorteners: usefulness vs. link rot

  • Many argue third-party shorteners “should never have existed,” as they centralize link rot and tracking.
  • Defenders cite real use cases: QR codes, printed materials, manual entry, analytics, and internal “go/xxx” style links for organizations.
  • Several conclude: don’t trust external shorteners for anything you want to last.