Oct 1, 2010 12:31 GMT  ·  By

Google has just upgraded its URL shortener it unveiled quite a few months ago. The service had only been available in the Google Toolbar and via Google services, but it is now open to anyone wanting a shorter link.

URL shorteners don't really get as much attention as a year ago when it seemed that one launched every few days or so. In fact plenty of startups in the market died in the past year.

Yet Google chose this time to unveil its revamped product. The company says that there are several reasons for this and the main ones are stability, security and speed.

"We first introduced the Google URL Shortener (goo.gl) last December as part of Google Toolbar and Feedburner," Muthu Muthusrinivasan, Software Engineer at Google wrote.

"Since our initial release, we’ve integrated the technology into many other Google products including News, Blogger, Maps, Picasa Web Albums, and Moderator, but people have been asking for a direct way to use the service," he said

"Today we’re giving goo.gl its own website (http://goo.gl/, of course!). We don’t intend to overload goo.gl with features, but we do want it to be the stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web," he announced.

If you visit goo.gl, you'll be greeted by familiar features and the standard Google minimal design. You can paste an URL for shortening or check out the stats on the links you've already shortened, including automated ones from Google services.

You'll also get access to a bunch of stats about your shared links. In fact, feature-wise, goo.gl is pretty much on par with Bit.ly the dominant player in the market and the de facto gold standard. You can check out a very in-depth comparison of Bit.ly and goo.gl on SEL.

Google makes no claims of breaking new grounds here. Instead, the main reason for the move, it said, is to offer a link shortening service that is guaranteed to work a year from now, to stay up and to not spread malware.

One neat trick is that every link also gets a QR code, accessible by adding ".qr" to the end of the shortened URL. The service is now live for everyone.