14 DAY TRIAL // The URL shortening craze is, thankfully, over, but once in a while we still get a new service or a new feature related to this. Thankfully, Google’s latest addition is not another ‘me too’ URL shortener, but an actually useful tool for Google Maps. Anyone who has ever tried to send a Google Maps link knows that they can be painfully long. Seeing one in an email is scary enough and sending one through IM is not the most pleasant of experiences. With the new Short URL feature, now available in Google Labs, the links get trimmed down to a much more manageable size.
To enable the feature, click on the Labs icon at the upper right corner of the Google Maps page, next to your account information. It’s the second gadget in the Google Maps Labs list, so it shouldn’t be too hard to spot. Click enable then save and then reload the page to see it in action.
Now, clicking on the link button opens an in-line text box with the shortened URL. As you might have expected, the shortened links are provided by Google’s existing service goo.gl. The link provided is short enough to be sent by IM and won’t look out of place in an email. Of course, it will work great on Twitter as well.
Interestingly, Google uses a dedicated link for Maps, rather than the generic goo.gl/xxxx these links will be something like goo.gl/maps/xxxx. This adds a few more characters to the link, but it makes it much easier to notice and users will know right away what awaits them at the other end. Unfortunately, enabling Short URL, will remove the embed code normally available for each Google Maps location. If this is something you use, you’re better off sticking with the long URLs or using a dedicated shortening service. [via Google OS]