Short URLs for Google
Thanks to Net at Night we came across a great little app for shortening Google search query URLs. Gog.is, developed by Norwegian Mr. Calzone, offers the simplest method to create and send a short URL via e-mail and IM. No downloads, no site to visit, no ambiguous URLs, simply type in http://gog.is/ followed by your query and the link will automatically redirect to the corresponding Google search result page.
If you've ever needed to e-mail or IM a link to a Google search results page you'll know that there are various problems that can arise; links can break in IM and e-mail and some of the shortening services mask the ultimate link location.
We've written about our favorite link shortening services before, and Gog.is works in much the same way as most of them; the exception being it only shortens Google search queries.
How Gog.is works
Type in http://gog.is/ and add any search query. That's it!
For instance, the Google search results for the query ReadWriteWeb would have the long URL:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ReadWriteWeb&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=
Using Gog.is would deliver the same results page, yet would come from the URL:
http://gog.is/ReadWriteWeb
Gog.is seems to also work with a variety of Google operators such as site:, link:, info:, etc. If you need a refresher on operators, take a look at Google Guide's Google Cheat Sheet.
Gog.is was made in part as a joke for a friend that Mr. Calzone was constantly "slapping" with Google searches, but we think it's an efficient and useful resource.
What do you think?
Comments
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Who cares about short URLs? It breaks the fundamentals of the Internet and it puts any service at risk that accepts shortened URLs because the shortened URL provider could go offline at any time.
Are we paying by the character or something?
I saw this service and then I realize, what's the big difference really. It's just a way to link to search results when I could just copy the URL and go to is.gd or a like service. Also, instead of using the service, I could just hop over to my "google search bar" and type in my search query.
I really don't see a huge point to the service, fairly useless in my opinion.
Shorten URL are mainly for Twitter and mobile texting users, because both have word limitations. So while I agree there won't be too many people using this, I won't just label it useless.
for example, if I wanted to tell my twitter follower there is a debate on whether or not the marking of the beast is "666" I would just say:
" Intresting find: there is a debate on the marking of the beast. google it to see it your self: http://gog.is/616 vs 666"
another example, you could show people a quick google price check
"hey, i7 had been out for a while now but price of quad-core still won't come down ( http://gog.is/intel 6600 ) can someone tell me why?"
*****
so yeah, I still could find use for it, but only under a twitter or mobile phone environment
Good method to create and send a short URL = http://go2.me/
Good posts!
now i can make to simple "search page" :)
There is a similar thing for the English Wikipedia - http://enwp.org/ . But it is a shortcut for articles rather than searches. So http://enwp.org/ReadWriteWeb goes to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadWriteWeb .
I agree with Jacky in that it's mainly Twitter users who will see the benefits of shortening Google search urls. Let's face it - some of these urls do often get ridiculously long...
I often get asked where to find a certain piece of information online by lazy colleagues who can't figure out how to use a search engine properly. Recently I came across a site called Let Me Google That For You which humiliates people into doing their own searches.
I love it!
If you use google chrome (browser) you type directly the search term on the url field! You do not even have to type "gog.is/term" but just "term"
Haha - Let Me Google That For You is great!
re: gog.is -- I would have just copied search query and trimmed it down to:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ReadWriteWeb
but I can see how it would be much quicker to just type:
http://gog.is/ReadWriteWeb
Nice share...
no hope , not useful at all...
Not useful. This is all you need:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ReadWriteWeb