According to TechCrunch there is a reason why Twitter switched to bit.ly http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/url-shortening-wars-twitter-ditches-tinyurl-for-bitly/
For me url shortening was purely for url shortening so I've been using is.gd since it seemed to generate short urls and it was supported by TweetDeck. It's quite possible that I might have been using tr.im if they listed it higher on their list of supported services. Considering the Twitterspace, unless you're backed by a VC or intend it to be a loss leader the competition seems pretty wide which apparently doesn't seem to be the case for tr.im. They mention they looked into getting bought. They might have a great service, but unless there's a feasible revenue model associated with it, I suspect potential buyers are going to be very limited. If they were hoping to be acquired by Twitter, I wouldn't have hoped on that, given that Twitter is not generating revenue as far as I know. As far as I can tell, it doesn't look like they had a realistic business plan in place given the landscape. tr.im does seem to be a good name, but for me short urls are unreadible when I look at it in whole. I still don't know what I'm clicking on per se, so whether it starts with http://tr.im/ or http://bit.ly/ I really don't see one being superior over another name-wise. If anything, I'd probably chose which one generated the shortest url so as to save space in my tweet. Furthermore, what the url shortening service is branded seems less important when you consider how it will be primarily used. Once integrated with an app, visibility of the brand is probably going to be negligible. A lot of Twitter apps provide url shortening either via a built in tool or automagically. I haven't been using it, but as I've mentioned, I could care less what the service was called. And if TechCrunch's research is correct, Twitter picked bit.ly because of several factors. - Warren --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Our Web site: http://www.RefreshAustin.org/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Refresh Austin" group. [ Posting ] To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Job-related postings should follow http://tr.im/refreshaustinjobspolicy We do not accept job posts from recruiters. [ Unsubscribe ] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] [ More Info ] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Refresh-Austin -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
