The URL Shortening Bandwagon
Everyone seems to be on Twitter.
Everyone wants a shorter URL.
Everyone wants to supply that URL.
Of course I’m using “everyone” in it’s extreme liberal sense…but with the rise of character limited communication services, there has been an increase in services creating the Twitter Worthy URL.
If you’ve managed to not live under a rock the last few years…than this new trend is nothing new. All the way from TinyURL.com, to Bit.ly. Twitter users can see these plastered all over the Twittersphere (stay away English Gastapo).
Even though our 140 Character Limit Friend revolutionized the use of shortened URL’s..the concept is nothing new. TinyURL was launched in 2002, and other forms have been used for jump links on affiliate networks. Since TinyURL’s creation, especially with the popularity of Twitter, hundreds of similar services have been spawned.
In all honesty, I’m not an active user of Twitter. In some cases I’ll follow a link to a tweet if its something worth reading…but, I don’t have a ton of experience with URL shortening services. I’ll defer to Sarah Palin on this one.
Are these services becoming more mainstream?
From the looks of things, it is. A few days ago (Dec. 14th to be exact), Google released a URL shortening service to be used through Google Toolbar and Feed Burner. Yea, I know their trying to increase market share..expand beyond search and all that good stuff. But what’s the point? Unless it’s another way to collect user data and visitor behavior (which I don’t blame them for doing)…I think the service is useless.
Let me take it a step further. I think this concept is more of a fad than a trend. Yes, it will continue to be used among Tweeters and quick link exchanges. But as an online marketer and using Twitter to drive traffic to your site…why would you use a service that has no guarantee of being here tomorrow. Basically, you run the risk of linkrot. Like I said, this service is fine for linking to a news article, or a 3rd party site…but we would be fooling ourselves to think this will replace the standard URL.
I don’t even think Twitter is here to stay (yea, I said it), so you have nothing to worry about. In an increasingly emerging industry, how long will users be confined to 140 characters…especially if “Flitter” comes along with a 150 character limit. Adios.
Here are some examples of shortened URL’s getting the beat down:
- In 2006 MySpace banned the use of TinyURLs
- Yahoo Answers rejects posts containing TinyURLs
- Orkut (Google’s Social Networking tool) recently killed all TinyURLs
- Panera Bread recently blocked access to TinyURL within their Wi-Fi network.
If spammers and affiliates abuse the likes of Bit.ly or any other service (even Google)…you’ll see the same results. In the case you insist on using a shortened URL for marketing purposes, I would recommend starting your own service.
Also, if you think I’m dead wrong about this…feel free to leave a comment or you can contact us here: http://bit.ly/7HpA8H – or follow us on Twitter. (i.e http://bit.ly/76h179)
I’ll let you know when I have joel.me up and running!
Have a good one.
Thanks for this article ………
I used this trick to get more seo by puting my site on twitter.com
Thank you so much