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URL Shorteners List and Why It’s a Mistake for Twitter
Chris Messina has put together a list via pictures of the various URL Shorteners across the world. The biggest URL shortener is TinyURL which has been around for years and has created over 47 million short URLs. If you are unfamiliar with URL shorteners, they take a link such as ”http://http://www.centernetworks.com/moo/moo/as/sites-as-big-as-cow.html” and turn it into "http://tinyurl.com/424×23".
Sites such as Twitter use TinyURL to replace the links within tweets. I believe this is a mistake as many writers are moving to Twitter instead of blogging but the ability to view history is important. If TinyURL is down or out of service, not one Twitter URL will work. If Twitter was smart, they would take some of their VC money and buy the technology from TinyURL (or another short URL service) and make sure all URLs are using the twitter.com domain.
You should look in to http://1url.com
They have a pretty cool Twitter bookmarklet. They’re also the shortest “.com” service out there (that I’m aware of at least, and I’ve searched through MANY services).
I agree, Twitter should not be automatically converting links to any intermediate sites (except those under the control of Twitter). From a legal standpoint, I would imagine there would even be some liability issues.
Technically speaking, there isn’t even a need for URL shortening. Just replace the displayed URL with some generic inline text or a graphic such as “[Link]” and count it as a specific number of letters. Although the reader will not see the URL in the tweet, the HREF attribute will still operate accordingly.
Simple solutions are best.
Also, I should add that another reason my proposal above is the ideal solution over URL shorteners, is because it gives end-user the ability to examine each link beforehand (hovering reveals the actual URL in the status bar) before clicking it. This keeps the user both in-control and informed, which is the way the Web should work. Hiding information is poor design practice, and does not promote a security and safety conscious online community.
The alternative is to use the “msplinks” strategy, taking users to an interstitial page warning them about the dangers of following exernal links.
I like your idea re URL shortening – just replacing with “Link” or similar. I hate not knowing where a link is going to take me. So how do we get twitter to change?
Twitter shouldn’t attempt to shorten URLs for its users at all. It’s users’ decision as how they would use the 240-character space, and they don’t need someone trying to play smart to change it (and actually might be a dumb decision).
For some users, the URL presents something to readers as well as other parts of the message. I wouldn’t expect someone to change my message from “I’m furious” to “I’m mad”.
It’s simply manipulating users’ message without asking and a betray to users’ trust. If this continues, I’ll simply stopping going there.
I don’t want Twitter changing my use of the 140 characters. If I have a link that is too long, I will shorten it. If I have a branded URL to include, though, I don’t want to lose that branding as a result of Twitter replacing the URL with a generic-looking shortened URL.
After trying to use several popular URL shorteners, I decided to make my own. It is fast and clean, with simple stats.
http://go2.st
Feel free to suggest new features and improvements (twitter: @haqu)
Not a heavy Twitter user (yet), but goto.st is short fast and easy to use. Thanks. If I have any feedback I will certainly pass it along, meanwhile the simplicity is its strength.
Why is it a bad thing? It’s the best way to fit those 141 character links into a 140 limit. Seriously, don’t complain about the little things, sure twitter should have one themselves, but for now, it’s the best way.
Because it’s mine, everyone should use http://lilurl.us
It’s been around forever, it’s free, there’s stats, you can choose a URL if it’s available, etc. etc. etc.
That being said, and even with me being a saint, Twitter should definitely do it themselves. It takes no time, and next to no smarts, to make a ahortening service. The code is everywhere.
My tUrl is free and open. As it says on the page:
T url was created as a GPL’d version of TinyURL.
So they could just use the software and host it internally if they wanted.
I completely agree – why would they make themselves so vulnerable when the technology to create their own version takes about 5 minutes to setup.
Dan twitter has a 140 character limit and shortening web address saves space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TinyURL
I’m not into this short url thing for linking between sites. I am only inclined or pursuaded to acknowledge short url domain names.
What are your reasons for why short url’s for links would be appropriate?
sounds like a nice fit for one of my projects Allen, Its not up yet but is a web site/web service for short urls called links.im
I really don’t know why they just don’t build it themselves as it took me 5 mins to know it up in Rails.
is.gd URL shortener is also worth checking out. It creates real short URLs & is easy to use.
twitter should also do that in a smarter way so that the url caracteres long should not be counted into the 140 caracteres limit but only the short url.
Please also try out http://truncurl.com . You can have your own profile to track visitors. It’s way easier to manage your URL’s that way and you can search for any redirect you have setup already.
If you like TinyURL, you might also want to check out http://traceurl.com
TraceURL shortens any URL plus it tracks traffic to the page through the TraceURL shortened web site address, showing where the traffic originated. Count accesses and have the origin of the visitor displayed on a Google Map.