Google has announced that they have acquired a new domain – g.co. Google says that they will be using the new domain to shorten the URLs of official Google Websites.

Google already has a URL shortening service at goo.gl. While goo.gl is available to shorten any publicly available websites, g.co cannot be used to shorten non-Google websites. Any g.co link will always land you on an official Google website.

This is what Google wrote about the new service:

The shorter a URL, the easier it is to share and remember. The downside is, you often can’t tell what website you’re going to be redirected to. We’ll only use g.co to send you to webpages that are owned by Google, and only we can create g.co shortcuts. That means you can visit a g.co shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service.

Since g.co and goo.gl serve different purposes, Google says that they are in no way pulling the plug on goo.gl. goo.gl will continue to be available as a URL shortener for public use.

There’s no need to fret about the fate of goo.gl; we like it as much as you do, and nothing is changing on that front. It will continue to be our public URL shortener that anybody can use to shorten URLs across the web.

You might want to check out our tips on using goo.gl:

• Five Tips For Using goo.gl More Effectively
• Shorten Links At goo.gl Without Using The Google Toolbar
• Generate QR Codes For Links Shortened Using goo.gl