GoDaddy is ending the forwarding of existing GoDaddy shortened links. So, if you were (or are) using one of GoDaddy’s shortened links, then after June 4, 2022 the shortened links will no longer work.
In an email sent out to those who were using their shortened links service, GoDaddy said:
“Our records show that at one point in time, you used our tool to create a short link with a shared domain from GoDaddy.
According to your account, you’ve used the following shared domains from GoDaddy:
x.co
Even though the ability to create new shortened links with shared domains has been retired for a few years now, we’ve made the decision to end the forwarding of existing GoDaddy shortened links. This means that after 6/4/2022, your shortened links will no longer resolve.
If you’re still using these GoDaddy shortened links, you can run an online search for “URL shortener” to find other similar solutions. For a complete list of all your shortened links, sign in to your GoDaddy account and go to our link shortener page.”
I don’t actually recall ever setting up a shortened link with that particular domain name, but I guess I did at some point in time. Perhaps over 10 years ago? Not sure.
GoDaddy may be wanting to sell that domain or use it for other purposes, so that’s most likely why they are going to “shut off” that link shortening service.
They tell users to do an online search for link shorteners and pick another service. The use of link shorteners has been controversial over the years, as it hides the real destination of the link, and many of them are “nofollow” links, whereas they don’t pass any PageRank or “link value” through the link. I’ve also known some to have the links expire and someone else then takes over the link and captures the traffic for themselves. There are a few services that automatically change the URL to a shortened link (which doesn’t make much sense to me), such as Twitter and LinkedIN. I suspect that they do this for analytics purposes, to see which links that people are actually clicking on.
If you must use a link shortener, then consider buying your own domain name and installing link shortener code on it that allows you to have 100 percent control over the links.