Google announced on Monday it has bought the g.co domain, a URL shortcut that will link to official Google products and services. This way, Google will make its URLs easier to share and simpler to remember for users. The search company said the only downside to short URLs is that users can’t always tell what web page they are going to be redirected to.
“We’ll only use g.co to send you to web pages that are owned by Google, and only we can create g.co shortcuts,” Gary Briggs, Google’s VP of consumer marketing, said in a blog post. “That means you can visit a g.co shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service.”
Google launched goo.gl its public URL shortener in 2009 and the service will remain active for general URL shortening. “There’s no need to fret about the fate of goo.gl; we like it as much as you do, and nothing is changing on that front. It will continue to be our public URL shortener that anybody can use to shorten URLs across the web,” Briggs wrote.
Google said that the acquisition of g.co was facilitated by .CO Internet SAS who operate .co domain names, but the terms of the deal were not disclosed. .co domain name is the TLD of Colombia, but .CO Internet SAS began operating the domain in 2010. The company says that since it launched to the public, .co domain saw over one million registrations worldwide. Some of the world’s most renowned companies created their internal URL shorteners, including Twitter’s t.co and Amazon’s a.co, z.co, and k.co.
500 Startups also announced its plans to rebrand its web address from 500Startups.com to 500.CO this Fall. ”At 500 Startups we focus on doing things faster, making cycle time shorter, and simplifying brand – we know no one will care about your product if it’s not fast, easy-to-use, and memorable. We want to OWN the brand 500, and 500.CO helps us get there,” 500 Startups founder, Dave McClure, wrote in a blog post.
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