Well said, from my point of view, bit.ly rolling out a wordpress plugin that phones home usage data for cruching is a nice intermediate step towards lightening loads and adding value.
jeff shuey
· 8 months ago
I like your points. However, as you briefly touched upon the one factor that seems to be left off most every discussion I have seen about URL shorteners is SECURITY - with a Capital S. I think as the popularity of TinyURL, BudURL, bit.ly and others increases there will be an increased need to insure the security of the URL's being delivered. It seems to be too easy for a spammer and others to propagate malware.
I'd like to assume there are efforts under the covers of these URL shortening services validating or otherwise checking the validity of the URL's they are shortening. However, I'm equally sure this is not the case. I'm not ascribing blame to anyone here. The price of the URL shorteners does not allow for a lot of additional time, research or effort to do more than they promise to do ... which is shorten URL's. They offer their services for free --- and I hope to be able to keep using them for a long time. You are right in that URL Shortening services are here to stay. Now, let's hope the level of security stays at a very high level too.
On this note, it's not only the ability to obfuscate a URL that can make it potentially dangerous, but also the security of the shortening service itself.
Quick research into other shortening services reveal common problems such as cross-site scripting and even cross-site request forgery. This becomes even more of a problem as these services integrate auto-posting to social networking sites. (think shortened link to dangerous site that propagates itself through csrf if you're in the doom and gloom mood.)
willwalmsley
· 8 months ago
The shortening of the url is not the problem. It is the decreased ability for the content providers to be able to maintain a sense of ownership that is worrying. Once a shortened url has taken you to a site it should then replace the shortened url with the full version in the address bar so that you can bookmark or properly reference it as shortening urls is only really useful in twitter type situations.
Twitter could simply create the ability to add links to text in 'tweets'. But across all the platforms Twitter operates on it seems that this wouldn't really work that well??
kylehase
· 8 months ago
I agree. Framing another site's content is stealing. Fortunately most URL shorteners use a bot-friendly HTTP redirect but some, like the new DiggBar, frame content. Webmasters can use Javascript to break out of frames so that newly created short URLs point to the actual page, not the framed page.
Martin Ouellette
· 8 months ago
To have ideas spread, they need to be transmissable. For virality, you need a virus. Tinyurl, bitly are virus generator. That can be transmitted way easly. A strong idea that is tough to spread will die before reaching all.
pagetweet
· 8 months ago
Thanks for mentioning pagetweet. A pity you didn't mention, that pagetweet is the only service which gives you the opportunity to leave a personal comment ony any page you link to, e.g. http://p8g.tw/?Eob
Adrian
· 8 months ago
I just tried out pagetweet and I think the idea is really cool. There are really a lot of URL shorteners out there, but non giving you the possibility of commenting the requested website.
dave
· 8 months ago
bit.ly raised $2 million not $8 million.
Tony
· 8 months ago
XIPPR is a URL shortening site I created a short while ago for this same purpose. xippr.com is the URL
BeerUniverse
· 8 months ago
I'm not completely sold on this yet - not all the links give you the previews - so really it gives no clarity where the site is going.
Mark
· 8 months ago
I guess they are really web 2.0 tool bars. Example : Web 1.0 Tool Bar vs Web 2.0 Tool Bar http://twitpic.com/2w7ji
Tara Tranguch
· 8 months ago
A great URL shortener is shortnme.com - the shortened URL can identify if the end-user is linking to the page on a mobile device or fixed connection and direct the link to the appropriate version of the page.
Timo Reitnauer
· 8 months ago
"I predict that there will be a day when every domain has URL shortening capabilities".
Shorten URLs under your own domain is a powerful branding strategy and a possible business model for URL shorteners. They could offer CNAME functionality to their users as a premium feature.
Timo Reitnauer
· 8 months ago
There are hundreds of short domains still available by the way. We've just published a list on our blog http://tr.im/i3um
jraines
· 8 months ago
Well, this certainly isn't meant to compete with the excellent full featured ones you've mentioned here (I'm a fan of bit.ly personally), but I think people who do a bit of affiliate marketing, especially on Twitter, might find the one I just hacked up interesting: http://mylinx.us -- it allows you to include a custom message and a cloaked affiliate link with any link you share, and has basic click tracking.
Kenneth
· 8 months ago
Thanks for the great input. I have read a little about this subject in the past but your suggestions on how to use url shorteners expands my thinking to new opportunities.
Thanks.
Andy Baio
· 8 months ago
"In an article this week, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter made some very compelling arguments for how cigarettes might kill you or your loved ones. However, I want to make some points for the opposite argument: that cigarettes are really awesome. Cigarettes feel good to smoke, relieve stress, and make you look cool to girls."
Steve Nagata
· 8 months ago
Another use for URL shorteners is for use in encoding to barcode or QR code graphics. Reducing the number of characters used is key in keeping the barcodes simple and easy to recognize. compressed URLs enable barcodes to target hard to reach areas of a website without complicating the graphic and make the output look neater.
DarinTait
· 8 months ago
Nice overview of the shorteners. Still dont get the advantage of tinyurl over bit.ly. As there are quite some around now, newcomers need to add new features to get an edge. Pagetweet takes the link sending in a nice new direction, with it's commenting function. Hope to see more of this kind.
Eric the Red
· 8 months ago
And when the company hosting the URL shortener service folds, YOU ARE LEFT WITH NOTHING.
The solution to long URLs in twitter as solved long ago. href links. You know, specific keywords that the link refer to with the link itself embedded and showing up in the status bar for anyone who wants to know without committing to anything. Yes, twitter would benefit from that new invention, hypertext, rather than reinventing it. As for what services "could" exist with all these redirected, obfuscated URLs, I don't think we need any more clumping and middlemen on the internet. Sites already have good analysis tools, everyone else shouldn't be snooping at what their contacts are looking at.
Rachel Burkot
· 8 months ago
I can see the benefits of URL shorteners from your points. I think they are definitely necessary for social media sites like Twitter, which place a great emphasis on conciseness. I don't see anything wrong with using URL shorteners. They just seem to make life on the web a whole lot simpler. Are there any downsides?
Andrew Snaith
· 8 months ago
I seem to be using them more and more each day. My main reason for using them is that the links look neater when putting them in an email / small message.
PS The link in the first sentence of the article to bit.ly is wrong.
James Ostheimer
· 8 months ago
5 reasons shortened urls are BAD:
1. Security 2. No branding 3. All path data is lost (think permalinks) 4. No backups (what happens to twitter if tinyurl folds?) 5. Security!!!
Security twice b/c Rick Rolling is not the worst thing that can happen for shortened urls, phishing is made 100x's of times easier with shortened urls.
Joe Fox
· 8 months ago
1. If a url is inordinately long, as they can be in blogs, it is useful. 2. If you want to keep private your intent until they get to your site, tinyurl's are useful. 3. my favorite, you can customize a tinyurl to ID your site - here's a couple of mine: http://tinyurl.com/totalwealthfx and http://tinyurl.com/localadlinkfx this is great for individual pages/posts in a blog or to refer to someone else's site. Well there's 3 reasons of my own.
John Beck
· 8 months ago
Hiz,
Such a Great Point thats has been DIsucssed by the Owner, thats why Twitter and Friendfeed auto converts the links into Tiny or short URL like its alwayz show my links like http://ff.im/-1Ybco
jaypiddy
· 8 months ago
I make a case in a blog post on how they actually defeat having paid and protected your branded url for so long. As well they are pretty much useless for search.
Here's a new offering to the shortURL/Twitter thing: http://twitt.at - it's basically the same as shortURL, but alot quicker to get your URL! Nice and simple looking too.. no gimmicks.
Raj
· 7 months ago
We recently launched a new website that provides a URL shortening service for "multiple" websites:
Viewista creates a short URL for “multiple” websites. Plus, you can view the multiple sites all at once. We think it can be a real time-saver. You can also post comments on the sites and share with your friends, making it a social URL sharing service. Viewista can be particularly useful on Twitter because a user can create a short URL for multiple sites on a topic without having to use multiple tweets.
Er, not to get into the argument, but if you need to unshorten short URLs you might find this Web service useful: http://therealurl.appspot.com/ (supports JSON too. Enjoy :))
Glenn Friesen
· 7 months ago
The shortest URL shortener available: tweak.tk Second place, three way tie: U.NU, A.GD, R.IM
I have been reading up on the pros and cons of URL shorteners. One con people mention is that the URL connection may be lost. While true, one also has to answer - are all the short URLs we are posting important? Microblogs and public facing blogs are mostly disposible content anyway.
Reino
· 6 months ago
I personally use http://veeox.com . You brought out some great points here, but the last part on if one got hacked into is a great worry ... imagine the mess.... however, how long would it last? they would restore database backups wouldn't they?
Wizzyfx
· 6 months ago
Here's a very quick one. OneSpin is probably the fastest among all url shorteners. No copy & paste, no plug ins or add-ons. Just use the address bar itself. Append 1sp.in at the end of the hostname and it will shrink automatically. See http://www.1sp.in
Me
· 4 months ago
And the bad side: When the service goes down, no one is able to visit your links thru Twitter or wherever you used them. IF URL shortening, then set up your own service.
1. Links were amazingly manageable before this. Somehow the internet grew and prospered. 2. You can track and compile click data from any URL. It is call statistics - and amazing it exists with or without URL shorteners. This is actually a downside in your article. The downside being that one company can track and compile your date. 3. And URL can be put into social media services. Think outside of twitter. 4. This is the same as #4 - gathering information. 5. They promote sharing? Really? How did we share links before URL shorteners? Nobody is sharing now because it is easier. We are sharing more because we have more ways to share faster.
URLs shorteners are one of the most annoying things I've seen. They hide where you are truly going and share all of your information with a 3rd party. The only reason we need them is because another service may place a restriction on the length of a message.
Internet Threat
· 3 months ago
URL shorteners are an unnecessary quirk of Twitter's interface that are not good for the web.
All Comments
I'd like to assume there are efforts under the covers of these URL shortening services validating or otherwise checking the validity of the URL's they are shortening. However, I'm equally sure this is not the case. I'm not ascribing blame to anyone here. The price of the URL shorteners does not allow for a lot of additional time, research or effort to do more than they promise to do ... which is shorten URL's. They offer their services for free --- and I hope to be able to keep using them for a long time. You are right in that URL Shortening services are here to stay. Now, let's hope the level of security stays at a very high level too.
We already saw this with TinyURL recently (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/18/tinyurl...) and that's on a _mature_ shortening service.
Quick research into other shortening services reveal common problems such as cross-site scripting and even cross-site request forgery. This becomes even more of a problem as these services integrate auto-posting to social networking sites. (think shortened link to dangerous site that propagates itself through csrf if you're in the doom and gloom mood.)
Twitter could simply create the ability to add links to text in 'tweets'. But across all the platforms Twitter operates on it seems that this wouldn't really work that well??
Shorten URLs under your own domain is a powerful branding strategy and a possible business model for URL shorteners. They could offer CNAME functionality to their users as a premium feature.
Thanks.
compressed URLs enable barcodes to target hard to reach areas of a website without complicating the graphic and make the output look neater.
PS The link in the first sentence of the article to bit.ly is wrong.
1. Security
2. No branding
3. All path data is lost (think permalinks)
4. No backups (what happens to twitter if tinyurl folds?)
5. Security!!!
Security twice b/c Rick Rolling is not the worst thing that can happen for shortened urls, phishing is made 100x's of times easier with shortened urls.
Such a Great Point thats has been DIsucssed by the Owner, thats why Twitter and Friendfeed auto converts the links into Tiny or short URL like its alwayz show my links like http://ff.im/-1Ybco
http://powershiftermedia.com/150-tiny-url-servi... Don't worry irony of the long url is not lost on me;)
http://www.viewista.com
Viewista creates a short URL for “multiple” websites. Plus, you can view the multiple sites all at once. We think it can be a real time-saver. You can also post comments on the sites and share with your friends, making it a social URL sharing service. Viewista can be particularly useful on Twitter because a user can create a short URL for multiple sites on a topic without having to use multiple tweets.
keyword search: track and compile url click data
site: http://www.spinell.se/5-reasons-why-url-shorten...
why?
Anyway, bit.ly is down :(
Second place, three way tie: U.NU, A.GD, R.IM
I love 'em.
http://www.glennfriesen.com/tweaktk-the-shortes...
http://uurl.in/yanarp
http://similar-site.com/s.php?URL=tr.im
1. Links were amazingly manageable before this. Somehow the internet grew and prospered.
2. You can track and compile click data from any URL. It is call statistics - and amazing it exists with or without URL shorteners. This is actually a downside in your article. The downside being that one company can track and compile your date.
3. And URL can be put into social media services. Think outside of twitter.
4. This is the same as #4 - gathering information.
5. They promote sharing? Really? How did we share links before URL shorteners? Nobody is sharing now because it is easier. We are sharing more because we have more ways to share faster.
URLs shorteners are one of the most annoying things I've seen. They hide where you are truly going and share all of your information with a 3rd party. The only reason we need them is because another service may place a restriction on the length of a message.