It really does not have to be cost prohibitive at all. I wrote the code in about 2 hours to make my own branded URL shortener using my nickname with a .us domain. It is hosted on Godaddy, along with the rest of my site which means my total cost is less than $10 a month and 2 hours of labor. Even if someone had to pay for the 2 hours of labor that is still less than $400 for a great branding bonus - http://kbow.us/wxzV
Me
· 4 months ago
10 bucks is pretty expensive. For a TinyURL generator a .5 dollars server is way enough (individuals!). Handles at least 1,000 customers at the same time without any problems. On some of my personal projects I am using the same shortener... never had problems...
Tyler Shick
· 4 months ago
If you have a WordPress blog, we've developed a plug-in that lets you easily create and use short links based off your own domain. Strengthen your brand with Synected.
I think it's cool our local news paper has dmreg.com or something like that. We are also implementing same thing at http://www.mwd.com as our name is already short but we want to have short urls as well....
Love that new way of short urls...
Rodney Isemann
· 4 months ago
Still can't understand why Twitter doesn't do their own.
R!
Mike Lapidakis
· 4 months ago
su.pr has a wordpress plugin that shortens your url's automajicly. Works perfectly, includes analytics and you can opt in or out of the stumble bar. Defiantly a plus. i.e. http://mlapida.com/oHmj
Anarm
· 4 months ago
great info. thanks so much
Dirk Hoag
· 4 months ago
For any brand which hopes to draw web traffic via Twitter, this is a no-brainer. Especially once re-tweeted, a generically shortened URL is a wildcard. Someone could mock up a RT with a URL that redirects to a spoof site, for example.
Alison Groves
· 4 months ago
We've built a platform for this, and have a private beta running now with Maxim (max.im), The Tennessean (tnne.ws) and a few others. Stats included. It's been a lot of fun trying to work with TLDs and see what kind of cool URLs you can use for particular brands.
Me
· 4 months ago
I do not see a single advantage using a third party shortener. Indeed, there are more disadvantages: especially what if the company stops this service or what if their server(s) go down? ALL, really ALL your tiny links are invalid. Say goodbye to Google, etc. *g*
For a company an own URL shortener is a MUST HAVE. Easy to set up, cheap to host and easy to backup!
By the way, where the heck is URLcatch in your post? Way more useful than Awe.sm and free!
Andrzej
· 4 months ago
I wrote one recently for my website http://yars.co.uk (http://yars.eu). I think it looks better to have some kind of continuity in the branding, especially when you are posting links to the likes of twitter Mind you as much as anything it was an exercise in technical pedanticity lol Not expensive, asp and mysql are all part of my current hosting package. Even cheaper if you go the LAMP root!!
Noelle
· 4 months ago
I am guessing that a brand url shortener would have some SEO advantages, would it not?
Frank Bedoya
· 4 months ago
I think that the shortener sites create more satisfaction for their customers and visitors, make easy the navegation, get up the curiosity... and they have one biz between hands... in the backstage. No doubt.
Daniele Fiandaca
· 4 months ago
This seems hardly new. Smart car did this in the UK over 3 months ago (http://www.joewhatnall.co.uk/2009/04/smart-car-...). At the time I thought it was a very on brand although a little pointless as did not add anything beyond existing tools. However the market is far more cluttered now (with tools being far more advanced) and the tie into the brand seems rather tenuous.
Toranika
· 4 months ago
I feel that having your own shurt URL service is pretty much a good idea. I do agree with the reasoning that it means people are less likely to mistrust anything you post, especially if it is using a domain that they associate with you.
In order for me to use my own domains, I use a Wordpress plugin called Pretty Links. It sure helps when tweeting long post URLs.
Robert
· 4 months ago
I've also been using the plugin Prettylink for a while now and agree, that it helps to build trust with your visitors, especially if you are sending out lot of links via twitter. What I like much about the plugin is that there's a free version (http://ihrwebprofi.at/free), which offers most of the features you need for an own URL-shortener to work. The professional version (http://ihrwebprofi.at/pro) is only needed, if you want to take advantage of additional features like better statistics, better Wordpress-integration for new post and more.
Sri Lanka
· 4 months ago
Why not co.ke/qsbx?
and
coke.ze.ro/qsbx diet.co.ke/qsbx
Ralf
· 4 months ago
Short URLs are really cool and have given me an equally cool idea... your comp's operating sys could use the same concept for it's file system! Instead of really long names for folders and files, you could restrict everything to, say, 8 charachters, with perhaps 3 chars to identify the type of file! That was instead of cumbersome filenames like "Mediengruppe Telekommander - Die ganze Kraft einer Kultur - 07 - was sie schon immer über die mediengruppe wissen wollten.mp3", you'd have "MTKGKK07.MP3". I think I'll write to Bill Gates about that, could be The Next Big Thing???
Edward Parris
· 4 months ago
It is a good idea to build up brand etc... but most importantly (and not yet mentioned) is the fact that using your own (one that you own, not a 3rd party service) means that you are not relying on someone elses uptime. It bitly or tinyurl goes down... everyone of those links they host will no longer work. This is bad for the internet and probably alot of businesses. Using your own help maintain your urls and enables all your links to be safe within your own servers. Its not hard to roll your own.
Looking forward to the (void) web pointing into nothing, as soon as all this tinyurl-, bitly-, yourown- &co.- URLshortener services will close their gates...
Better you start your own 'ExistingShortURL-Aggregation-Service' now, to start selling all the "shorturl-linkmatch-entries (built into your google page rank)" to the webcompanies, as soon as the aforesaid services won't be able to pay their power bills anymore...
Also thanks in the name of all spammers - no one could ever imagine such a great blessing, as risky ShortURLs containing anything you can('t) imagine - with no chance to prove the linkdestination at all...
If this is not just a bad dream, I don't really wanna get awake anymore...
davereinhardt
· 4 months ago
Does a B2C need its own URL shortener? I can't see how this adds any meaningful value to a brands' communication strategy. I can see how it is helpful for a media agency whose brand is related to the content being distributed but for a B2C it really seems just another way of subliminally getting the brand out there. Very subtly. Maybe so subtly as to go unnoticed by most people that will just click on the link and get on with browsing.
Does anyone know if the coke links open the target page in a Coke branded frame? Although that would annoy me, I could see how it is an interesting thing for a B2C to do.
Jamal
· 4 months ago
Some open source php codes to build your own url shorteners
urlShort (http://urlshort.sf.net) is a free open source URL shortener that anyone can setup and use, rather than paying for services like awe.sm. Of course, with running your own you have to maintain the server, but otherwise it's pain-free!
wchingya
· 4 months ago
An example of how big players are valuing microblogging and social media in their venture. Obviously 'branding' is the main purpose here, a little promotional strategy. Don't see why not ?
@wchingya Social/Blogging Tracker
Bjorn
· 4 months ago
I don't really see the added value of a URL shortener for a brand like Coca Cola. I know the car brand Smart has it's own URL shortener for quite some time now (http://url.so-smart.be/), and in that particular case I see the 'reason' to have one. It's completely in line with the car's values and communication. For Coca Cola however, it's just a gimmick in my opinion.
Vinch
· 4 months ago
Actually, it's not very new. Smart did it in Belgium (and not UK) three months ago --> http://url.so-smart.be
The concept is stronger for Smart (because Smart are very small cars you can park anywhere) than for Coke.
Sean O
· 3 months ago
It's easy to build your own URL shortener. I recently posted an article on how to create one for your site / brand in under 50 lines of code:
One of the developers at our firm built one that is branded (Click my name link) Well, sorta branded. Since it uses Google App Engine, it really brands Google as well, but ah well.) Would love to build our very own, from scratch, but can't seem to figure out exactly how (or find the time to).
All Comments
http://www.blurbia.com/plugins/synected
Happy to develop a version for any company wishing to have their own branded service.
Regards
Ronnie
http://twitter.com/yooceo
Love that new way of short urls...
R!
For a company an own URL shortener is a MUST HAVE. Easy to set up, cheap to host and easy to backup!
By the way, where the heck is URLcatch in your post? Way more useful than Awe.sm and free!
Mind you as much as anything it was an exercise in technical pedanticity lol
Not expensive, asp and mysql are all part of my current hosting package. Even cheaper if you go the LAMP root!!
In order for me to use my own domains, I use a Wordpress plugin called Pretty Links. It sure helps when tweeting long post URLs.
now and agree, that it helps to build trust with your visitors, especially if you are sending out lot of links via twitter.
What I like much about the plugin is that there's a free version (http://ihrwebprofi.at/free), which offers most of the features you need for an own URL-shortener to work. The professional version (http://ihrwebprofi.at/pro) is only needed, if you want to take advantage of additional features like better statistics, better Wordpress-integration for new post and more.
and
coke.ze.ro/qsbx
diet.co.ke/qsbx
It bitly or tinyurl goes down... everyone of those links they host will no longer work. This is bad for the internet and probably alot of businesses. Using your own help maintain your urls and enables all your links to be safe within your own servers. Its not hard to roll your own.
Check out the article a collegue of mine wrote about the real reason you should have your own url shortener: http://www.nixonmcinnes.co.uk/2009/04/07/implem...
smiley face
Looking forward to the (void) web pointing into nothing, as soon as all this tinyurl-, bitly-, yourown- &co.- URLshortener services will close their gates...
Better you start your own 'ExistingShortURL-Aggregation-Service' now, to start selling all the "shorturl-linkmatch-entries (built into your google page rank)" to the webcompanies, as soon as the aforesaid services won't be able to pay their power bills anymore...
Also thanks in the name of all spammers - no one could ever imagine such a great blessing, as risky ShortURLs containing anything you can('t) imagine - with no chance to prove the linkdestination at all...
If this is not just a bad dream, I don't really wanna get awake anymore...
Does anyone know if the coke links open the target page in a Coke branded frame? Although that would annoy me, I could see how it is an interesting thing for a B2C to do.
http://code.google.com/p/phurl/
http://code.google.com/p/kissabe/
Anyone tried these?
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
The concept is stronger for Smart (because Smart are very small cars you can park anywhere) than for Coke.
http://sean-o.com/short-URL
http://s.gnosisarts.com