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Bit.ly Provides Shorter URLs with Advanced Traffic Tracking
Posted by Kevin Purdy at 11:00 PM on July 9, 2008
Link-shortening services like TinyURL have become nearly ubiquitous in space-restricted places like email, Twitter, and mobile sites—which is why it's odd it's taken so long for a similar service to offer traffic tracking, thumbnail caching, or other advanced services. Free URL shrinker Bit.ly jumps into that void with a slick set of features. The site remembers the last 15 links you shortened on your landing site, and it stores a thumbnail graphic of each link on its own space. Obsessive traffic-watchers can see how many have clicked through their links, where they found them, and compile all that data from simple XML or JSON feeds. There's a handy bookmarklet for quick Bit.ly conversion, and the developers are working on geo-locating features for the near future. All in all, a viable link-snipping service for web workers and info geeks.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Jared Goralnick
Posted 11:14 PM 9/7/08
Sounds pretty cool and "bit.ly" is quite short! I've been using snipr.com (aka snipurl.com) for a long time now and I love how it lets me track all my snips, keep click counts, unique click counts, and choose custom URLs (the best part).
I suppose every area needs competition but I just wanted to offer the tool that has been most helpful to me: [snipr.com.]
Jared Goralnick
MikeRapin
Posted 11:50 PM 9/7/08
I still prefer [is.gd] because of how short the URL ends up being... but the keeping your last 15 saved on the homepage is an attractive feature along with the statistics and such.
I'll keep it in my back pocket. haha
MikeRapin
ahpatel
Posted 12:12 AM 10/7/08
I second the snipr.com service.
ahpatel
thetap
Posted 1:40 AM 10/7/08
For those who want a more customized short url, the program Shorty can be installed on your own domain letting you create custom short urls like www.mywebsite.com/shorturl. It lets you use your own keywords and it is a very light install.
[get-shorty.com]
thetap
geeniusatwrok
Posted 2:38 AM 10/7/08
is.gd still makes shorter URLs. I don't care about the history thing.
geeniusatwrok
endorphin
Posted 3:06 AM 10/7/08
A long list of all the cool URL shortening services:
[zerocold.net]
endorphin
delfuego
Posted 4:53 AM 10/7/08
Eh, it's a cool service, but totally pisses in the web pool when it comes to respecting the web authors whose content it is they're caching when they're not allowed to.
[q.queso.com]
Sigh.
delfuego
davecort
Posted 3:41 PM 10/7/08
I personally like PlumURL as my link shortening service. It lets you add arbitrary keywords to your link, pushing the non-human-readable code out to the end of the link. Plus you can leave a sticky note on the page for visitors. Pretty slick.
[plumurl.com]
davecort