You said "If you tried to type in ?plus? or ?gmail? after a backslash, you?re not going to get anything." and well, you won't get much of anything at ANY URL after a BACKslash. (Should be "forward slash".)
C'mon ZDnet - you know better.
Google is simplifying access to its growing collection of products and services with the acquisition of the URL shortcut “g.co.”
Much like Bitly and TinyURL, Google has already had a URL shortening product of its own since 2009 called Goo.gl. That product is staying the same and untouched.
However, g.co is quite different as it will only be linked to official Google-branded online portals. Even if you can’t tell which website you’re being redirected to, the link will only lead to sites owned by Google. Thus, it sort of legitimizes the link and makes it more trustworthy to the end user.
Additionally, it just streamlines access to Google sites in general, especially when users want to share something quickly on social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and, of course, Google Plus. Having a shorter URL also makes it easier and cheaper when using URL addresses in advertisements.
There isn’t much beyond the g.co landing page right now. If you tried to type in “plus” or “gmail” after a backslash, you’re not going to get anything. The platform is still rolling out.
Google’s official shortcut was developed in partnership with .CO Internet SAS, which operates .co domain names. Examples of other .co sized-down URL paths include Twitter’s T.Co and Overstock’s O.Co.
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