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goo.gl has been around for quite a while. Is there something new I don't see here?

There was already a Chrome extension since the beginning.

Earlier they did not offer custom URL shortening. goo.gl was used by Google services like Reader, YouTube but it was not open to public.

Hm but with that Chrome extension, it worked. So I guess there was an open API already.

The Chrome extension reverse-engineered the API from the Google toolbar, it wasn't officially released.