A week ago we showed that Google is truncating URLs in some cases. To my surprise, Jaime from the Google Web Search team picked up the story and decided to explain why Google does shorten URLs. He decided to post the details in a Google Web Search Help thread and added a comment at the original blog post.

First, here is a picture of Google shortening a URL, so you know what I mean:

So how and why does Google do this in some cases? Jaime from Google explains:

Of course, the rational is logical but it is nice to hear it from the ‘horses mouth.’

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.