301Works teams up with Internet Archive to preserve shortened links
The Internet Archive and 301Works, a consortium of more than 20 URL shortening services, are partnering to preserve the millions of condensed links shared every day on Twitter and other streaming services. 301Works’ members are donating their URL mappings and sending regular back-ups to the Internet Archive for storage. The working group has picked up Stowe Boyd as its director.
Shortened URLs are condensed web addresses. Because Twitter has a strict 140-character limit, users try to… Continue Reading
bit.ly launches even shorter URL shortener j.mp
Name-shortening service bit.ly is Twitter’s default service for scrunching long Web addresses into short ones that leave more room for text in users’ tweets. Twitter switched from previous provider TinyURL.com in May. At the time, a New York Times report suggested that reliability was a problem with TinyURL. We also heard that bit.ly offered better analysis tools.
But bit.ly’s staff surely know that many Twitter users are obsessive enough over their 140-character limit on tweets that… Continue Reading
Yfrog partners with Bit.ly to pump up Twitter photo, video-sharing
To capture more of the growing photo- and video-sharing space on Twitter, ImageShack’s media hosting service Yfrog is partnering with the leading URL shortener Bit.ly this month.
In the next few weeks, Bit.ly will launch a media-sharing service powered by Yfrog while the image-sharing service will make Bit.ly shortened links available through its site.
The two companies are trying to make use of their strengths: Bit.ly dominates the URL shortener market, making up nearly 80 percent of all shortened links… Continue Reading
Tr.im goes open source, avoids porn-redirection fate
The web-link shortening service, Tr.im, may have finally found a way out of its predicament by shifting to open-source and becoming community-owned.
Nambu, the company behind Tr.im, will relinquish ownership of the domain name, release the source code and open the real-time data it collects publicly, according to the company blog. The company’s founder, Eric Woodward, said he’ll personally cover any shortfall in Tr.im’s expenses while welcoming donations from the public. The move may allow Tr.im… Continue Reading
Why Bit.ly may beat Digg
URL shortening services may seem trivial, but they’re a potential goldmine of information about what humans on the Internet, not automated bots, find valuable or at least interesting.
Compared to, say, Google Maps, the way a URL shortener works is blessedly simple: A human Web surfer or automated Web server gives Bit.ly a URL, for example http://www.verylongname.com/very_very_very_long_url.html.
In return, Bit.ly gives back a short URL that looks like this: http://bit.ly/YZLpD.
The user or server publishes the Bit.ly URL… Continue Reading
Bit.ly nabs cash, gives TinyURL a run for its money
At first glance, Bit.ly looks like every other URL shortening service — turning lengthy web addresses into something compact and easily-tweeted like http://bit.ly/11BCd2 — indistinguishable from the Short.tos and Doiops of the world. Of course, TinyURL, the first of its kind, remains the heavyweight, seemingly immune from its drop-in-the-bucket challengers. But with $2 million from several renowned investors, Bit.ly is now in a position to become a force on its own.
This first round of financing… Continue Reading