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Will Twitter's twt.tl URL shortener kneecap competitors?
The new shortener is called twt.tl -- little? Twittle? I think I get it! -- and it will allow Twitter to find malicious links as they're shortened, rather than waiting until they've been direct messaged to everyone under the sun.
But what of Twitter's url-shortening partner, Bit.ly?
Twitter elevated Bit.ly to the number one spot in the shortening market by making it the default for shortlinks, but it looks like the service might become a casualty of Twitter's security concerns. That won't happen for a while, though, because twt.tl's initial rollout will be for direct messages -- and email notifications about direct messages -- only. I'd bet on seeing it spread to the public timeline eventually, though.
Comments
6
Subscribe to commentsBrentMar 17th 2010 4:54PM
I bet it just uses Bit.ly's new pro service: http://bit.ly/pages/pro/
lookatthepiggyMar 17th 2010 4:57PM
I would expect them to use twt.tr instead.
Craig ElimeliahMar 17th 2010 5:02PM
If Twitter tells folks that they should not trust links that are not encoded with the Twitle URL shortener its an end game for all the TinyURL services out there, however, how will that work across multiple social networks? Twitter will risk its friendly reputation if they implement this. I am tired of Open Source companies who start out OPEN then learn a ton of stuff from developers building on their platforms then steal those ideas and integrate them into the core application. Its wrong, its unethical and its going to completely destroy the open source model. Open source is based on trust and a community like environment where everyone can benefit. Twitter has been great so far but this would be a step in the wrong direction.
joshuaMar 17th 2010 6:31PM
tinyurl.com has been around since 2002, I'm sure they'd still be okay if twitter adopted their own service.
OvenmittMar 17th 2010 9:20PM
No matter what Twitter rolls out, I will remain faithful to bit.ly
ryanincMar 18th 2010 8:09AM
For anyone using Chrome, I highly recommend the Explode extension. It invisibly translates short URLs and displays the full version in the lower left. It works so seamlessly that you barely even know it's there. I really like it.
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hniojmjkfmakikcfighiifjflnecmnjn