Crime Today News
Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is deploying its own link shorteners, search.app and share.google, for content shared from Discover.
- The new short links obscure source websites but retain the ability to generate rich previews with metadata like images and descriptions.
- While some see little benefit beyond analytics tracking, the change is gradually expanding to more users.
If you have an Android flagship, chances are you’ve also come across and probably use Google Discover on your minus-one screen (the pane on the left of your home screen). Discover is a good source for getting the latest articles, videos, and other personalized content delivered to you, and chances are that you’d like the content and want to share it with friends and family. Google is changing how Discover content is shared on the internet, and some users may find this change unnecessary and possibly irksome.
Previously, when you shared content you spotted on Google Discover (whether from the minus-one screen or within the Google app itself), it was shared as an ordinary URL. Users who saw the URL would recognize the website if they were familiar with it. Social media websites and instant messaging apps would also generate rich preview cards from this URL (like showing the meta description and featured image) if the website followed standard web practices.
Google has been experimenting with inserting its own link shortener whenever you share content you spotted in Discover.
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
These shortened URLs take the form of search.app and share.google links, both of which are Google-owned domains. This change has been around for a bit but is now rolling out to more users.
The shortened URLs obfuscate what website others will be clicking on. However, Google is solving this by presenting a verbose share message that does mention the website’s name of the website, but as standard text that you can easily modify or delete. Thankfully, it does seem that Google has preserved metadata, as we’ve seen rich previews on WhatsApp when sharing these shortened URLs.
Link shortening is a fairly common practice. Sometimes, it is helpful, like if you have a lengthy URL that a customer needs to type out. But in most instances, it doesn’t serve a purpose other than collecting analytics data on clicks. We see that X (formerly known as Twitter) also shortens URLs to t.co, Apple News shortens URLs to apple.news, and now, Google is joining the party.
Are you seeing shortened URLs when sharing Google Discover content? Let us know in the comments below!
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