Goo.gl's Awesome Easter Egg To Instantly Turn Any Link Into A QR Code

Earlier today, Google formally released Goo.gl, their URL-shortener, to the public. They’re calling it the “stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web.” But it also may be the coolest thanks to an easter egg.

As Google’s Matt Cutts’ just tweeted out, if you simply add “.qr” to the end of any goo.gl URL, it will create a QR code. Scanning this with any QR code reader will take you to the URL.

So, for example, this URL: goo.gl/umo0, is the shortened link for this post. If I make it: goo.gl/umo0.qr, I’ll get the image above.

This functionality actually isn’t entirely new — but previously it was way too hard to use goo.gl (it was limited to a few Google products). Now that more people will likely be using goo.gl, this is very useful and worth pointing out again.

These QR codes are great for mobile use, and Google in particular has been using them a lot for things such as easy installation of Android apps.