bitly
 bitly 2011 logo |
|
| URL | bitly.com |
|---|---|
| Type of site | URL shortening |
| Registration | Optional |
| Available language(s) | English |
| Owner | bitly, Inc. |
| Launched | 2008 |
| Current status | Active |
bitly (formerly bit.ly) is a URL shortening service owned by bitly, Inc., a betaworks company.[1] The current CEO is Peter Stern.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Services
The bitly URL shortening service is popular on microblogging website Twitter because it was the default URL shortening service on the website since May 6, 2009, replacing TinyURL.[3] Several competing services, such as Trim, shut down their services after they found that it was difficult to compete with bit.ly on Twitter.[4] In addition to its main URL shortening service, the website provides tools to view statistics related to users that click on generated links. The company behind bit.ly launched a similar service, but for online videos to determine what videos are the most popular on the web.[5]
Bit.ly announced October 12, 2010 that users can now automatically generate QR Codes that, when scanned with a mobile QR code reader, automatically direct users to shortened links.[6]
Bitly Enterprise is a sharing platform to allow a business to manage multiple social media accounts and to monitor usage of the user's brand.
Bit.ly links never expire and cannot be changed once they are created for a site. URLs that are shortened with the bit.ly service use the bit.ly domain or any other generic domain that the service offers. For example, "http://bit.ly/6wgJO" or "http://j.mp/6wgJO". However, with the advent of bit.ly Pro, companies can use their own custom domains to generate shortened links; for example, The New York Times uses "nyti.ms", and Pepsi uses "pep.si". This allows the company to push brand awareness on services such as twitter, but use the bit.ly engine to generate the shortened URLs and track marketing metrics.[7]
Information about any short bit.ly URL "http://bit.ly/x" is available at "http://bit.ly/x+" (that is, the URL with a plus sign appended), for example "http://bit.ly/QtQET+".[8] This allows users to see and check the long URL before visiting it.
".ly" is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Libya. In 2011, the bit.ly address was set to redirect to bitly.com.
[edit] Alternate domains
There are potential issues with the bit.ly domain, since it is controlled by the Libyan government, which has previously removed domains deemed incompatible with Muslim principles.[9]
Any shortened URL generated with bit.ly can also be accessed by replacing that domain with any one of the following:
- bitly.com (registered to Bitly).
- j.mp (registered to Bitly, and the top-level domain of the Northern Mariana Islands, which is a commonwealth of the United States).
- A custom domain, registered separately by the user and redirected to Bitly's servers via the DNS record.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "About bitly". bitly. https://bitly.com/pages/about. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
- ^ Garling, Caleb (February 9, 2012). "Bitly Fights for Social Analytics With Weapons-Grade Math". Wired Enterprise. http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/02/bitly-peter-stern/. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
- ^ Wauters, Robin (May 6, 2009). "URL Shortening Wars: Twitter Ditches TinyURL For bit.ly". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/url-shortening-wars-twitter-ditches-tinyurl-for-bitly/. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
- ^ McCarthy, Caroline (August 10, 2009). "URL shortener Trim gets cut off". ZDNet. http://www.zdnet.com/news/url-shortener-trim-gets-cut-off/330108. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
- ^ Schonfeld, Erick (December 17, 2009). "Watch The Buzz On Bitly.TV". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/17/watch-the-buzz-on-bitly-tv/. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
- ^ Indvick, Lauren (December 17, 2009). "URL Shortener Bit.ly Now Generates QR Codes, Too". Mashable. http://mashable.com/2010/10/13/bit-ly-qr-codes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29. Retrieved October 13, 2010.
- ^ Ali, Imran (February 6, 2009). "bit.ly.Pro: Create Short URLs With Your Own Domain". GigaOM. http://gigaom.com/collaboration/bit-ly-pro-create-short-urls-with-your-own-domain/. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
- ^ "What is bit.ly?" in the bit.ly FAQ, available at http://bit.ly/a/help#i_0_0
- ^ Horn, Leslie (2010-10-06), "Libya Seizes URL Shortener Vb.ly", PC Magazine, http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370354,00.asp, retrieved 2010-10-10
