I pretty much agree with Steven Harms that url shorteners are a "bad thing". I would just as soon create a redirection link on one of my reasonabley short domains like spring.net or austen.com than put my link in the hands of a service that may or may not be around in the future. I like being in control of my own destiny.
I agree with Joshua Shacter on this: The worst problem is that shortening services add another layer of indirection to an already creaky system. A regular hyperlink implicates a browser, its DNS resolver, the publisher's DNS server, and the publisher's website. With a shortening service, you're adding something that acts like a third DNS resolver, except one that is assembled out of unvetted PHP and MySQL, without the benevolent oversight of luminaries like Dan Kaminsky and St. Postel. see the rest of this excellent post at http://joshua.schachter.org/ Paul Terry Walhus Web Developer & Host Social Network Badges office: Spring.net Co-Working 1800 Lavaca 109G Austin, TX 78701 main number, call first: 501-365-1001 google voice also: 512-699-4000 mobile 512-782-4420 skype 512-551-3633 home [email protected] [email protected] http://spring.net/blog http://twitter.com/springnet skype: walhus home: 1191 Shiloh Road Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Sent from Austin, Texas, United States Ted Turner <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/ted_turner.html> - "Sports is like a war without the killing." On Tue, Aug 11, 2009 at 3:54 AM, Andrew McCollum <[email protected]>wrote: > Imagine if you're bit.ly and you could see not only what links were being > shared, but who was sharing them, which of their friends were rebroadcasting > them, and how likely people were to click on them. > Imagine > an aggregator that showed you, from the whole internet, only the things you > were most likely to spread to your friends. No one has made a site that > optimizes the > entire > experience for virality, because no one site has been able to put together > all the pieces. > > Until now. > > I can't say this is exactly their plan, but it's what I would do if I was > in their shoes. > > -Andrew > > > On Aug 11, 2009, at 1:35 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. 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