A couple of quick notes of interest:
On Link Rot
Bit.ly is trying to create a service to protect against link rot but
has run into concerns from the other shorteners, specifically in
regards to "private" links. Details are available at
http://blog.bit.ly/post/159843105/301working
. As Ryan noted, there is a ton of link rot already.
On a side note, I'd love to see Twitter require that Bit.ly provide
them with a monthly dump of all URL mappings so that Twitter can
maintain and install a backup where necessary. Being the anointed
shortener adds some responsibilities.
On Purpose/Uses of Link Shorteners
There are a few reasons that link shorteners have grown popular,
though obviously the first crushes all of the others:
1. Twitter as noted already
2. Memorable URLs / short URLs for promotion - I have seen Tr.im and a
couple of other services used in TV and print advertising.
http://tr.im/Snuggies is much better than
http://www.snuggiesrus.com/products/tv/offer2.html
3. Metrics for the non-technical or those who don't have access to
server analytics
On Monetization
Numbers two and three above are one key way to monetize. BudURLt from
Live Oak 360 (a local company), has figured out monetization using the
now-popular freemium model and from all appearances seem to be doing
well with it.
People will pay for simplicity, and that's one thing many shorteners
have gotten right.
Alex Jones
www.SilverSpider.com
www.twitter.com/BaldMan
www.RefreshAustin.org
On Aug 11, 2009, at 8/11/09, 3:35 AM, Juan Sequeda wrote:
> So these url shortners startups are getting funding??? If people are
> not paying to shorten the URL, how are they planning to make money?
> Do they have enough stats to actually have some decent marketing
> info to sell?
>
> Juan Sequeda, Ph.D Student
> Dept. of Computer Sciences
> The University of Texas at Austin
> www.juansequeda.com
> www.semanticwebaustin.org
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Wilson, Russell <[email protected]
> > wrote:
>
> Some other URL shorteners that have stats are:
>
> awe.sm (lots of hype on these guys recently - heavily funded)
> su.pr (from stumbleupon - interesting integration there)
> cli.gs
>
> I've been experimenting with them all for my blog (dexodesign.com)
> because
> I wanted to offer shortened urls to readers AND use the same service
> for some
> of the plugins I'm using. Problem is that getting one service
> across all the
> plugins has been near impossible... I'm still in the process of
> working on this
> one...
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]
> ] On Behalf Of Alex S. Jones
> Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 11:38 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [Refresh Austin: 4256] Re: Tr.im going away
>
>
> I chose Tr.im for the same reasons Ryan did - useful stats in an easy
> to use UI. Additionally I liked the fact that it used the minimal
> characters possible, which is important when posting something to
> Twitter that you think will be retweeted. The 3 characters that
> differentiated Tr.im from Bit.ly, not to mention the longer options
> like TinyURL.com can have a significant impact.
>
>
> Alex Jones
> www.SilverSpider.com
> www.twitter.com/BaldMan
> www.RefreshAustin.org
>
>
>
> On Aug 10, 2009, at 8/10/09, 11:15 AM, Ryan Joy wrote:
>
> >
> > I chose tr.im because I wanted stats for my shortened links. I
> didn't
> > research many of the other shorteners because tr.im very simply
> > provided the service I needed. Although, the frequency of 500 error
> > pages recently had become very annoying. I probably would've jumped
> > ship even had they continued to operate.
> >
> > - RYAN JOY
> > http://twitter.com/atxryan
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Louis Orenstein<[email protected]
> > > wrote:
> >>
> >> As we all know, tr.im is about to close up shop, and it seems
> >> people are
> >> a little sad to see it go.
> >>
> >> I'm curious if people are sad about tr.im going away more for
> >> nostalgic
> >> reasons, or are there some technical (or other) benefits that they
> >> offered over bit.ly (or other URL shorteners for that matter)
> >>
> >> Tr.im's site says that there was no way for them to monetize URL
> >> shortening since users won't pay for it. That seems like something
> >> they
> >> should have known going in, and while they might not have the money
> >> or
> >> time to investigate other business models it almost sounds like
> they
> >> threw all of their eggs into one of two baskets: (a) get users to
> pay
> >> for their url shortening (and associated stats) (b) get acquired by
> >> another company. Neither of them is working out, but did they
> have a
> >> backup/fallback plan? What would one look like?
> >>
> >> Did Twitter pick bit.ly just randomly out of a hat? It's
> definitely
> >> true that in markets you don't always have the superior product
> >> winning
> >> the biggest market share, but if tr.im really was a much better
> >> offering
> >> than bit.ly I would think they would be able to figure out another
> >> way
> >> to monetize... but maybe bit.ly always had the "good ol boys club"
> >> advantage since I believe I read they have some high-profile
> >> investors
> >> who may themselves have the ability to influence the market's
> >> decisions.
> >>
> >> Anyone care to discuss / share / enlighten ?
> >>
> >>>
> >>
> >
> > >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
>
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
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
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
