Member Avatar for MktgRob

I just read on Mashable that url shortner was shutting down and that by 1/1/2010 all of the urls will stop working. The post mentions that the creator of Delicious has made the case against shortened urls. Is this the beginning of the end for URL shortners or is this just a case of one company not being able to keep up with the leaders in the market?

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A quick, practical take that builds on the thread: the tr.im episode is exactly the kind of reminder and others flagged — shorteners are convenient but fragile, and “it’s only one service” can easily become “it’s gone.” Link rot is real and measurable, and large providers have both consolidated and changed course over time (platforms introduced their own wrappers; Google’s goo.gl was formally deprecated). Link rot overview. Twitter’s t.co rollout and Google’s goo.gl deprecation coverage show how the landscape shifted. (Those shifts are why relying on an unowned short domain is a business risk.)

For digital marketers the fixes are simple and practical:

  • Use a branded short domain you control instead of a generic third‑party domain — providers and guides explain how branded links work and why they boost trust. Rebrandly on branded links.
  • Run your own shortener (or keep an exportable mapping) so you control redirects and data; open source options exist so you can host on your domain. YOURLS — your own URL shortener.

Technical notes that matter: always map moved shortlinks with an HTTP 301 (permanent) redirect if you want link equity and SEO preserved, and keep regular backups/CSV exports of the short→long mapping so you can rebuild elsewhere if a provider folds. 301 semantics and SEO behavior. Also be cautious using country-code domain hacks (e.g., .ly): they’re short but can introduce geopolitical or registry risk. URL shortening considerations.

Tieback to the thread: ’s point about larger players keeping services running is true in many cases, but history shows even big providers pivot. and were right to prize tracking — just host tracking on a domain you control (self-hosted or branded provider) to avoid being surprised by a shutdown. Short checklist: register a branded short domain, enable HTTPS, export/import mappings into a controllable system (YOURLS or equivalent), ensure 301 redirects, and schedule periodic backups.

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Member Avatar for Hirohurl

It's probably the latter... For example, StumbleUpon just recently launched a URL shortener with some extra features added in, and I doubt that they'll pull the plug on it.

Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

There will always be pros and cons about any services. Period. I personally have never used and use mostly bit.ly because it allows for traffic referral tracking.

Member Avatar for articlemaster9

There will always be pros and cons about any services. Period. I personally have never used and use mostly bit.ly because it allows for traffic referral tracking.

I have used bit.ly and even use linkbee.com.. both of them offer traffic tracking. Dont know anything about

Member Avatar for MktgRob

I am with everyone else here in that I use bit.ly and I also think that if had offered traffic tracking they would have lasted longer.

Member Avatar for MktgRob

It turns out the demise of may have been an elaborate publicity stunt. Within 1 week of shutting down they have gone live again and management is saying that it was due to the great clamour of loyal users. Other that what I posted about what I read on mashable, I heard nothing about the site/service shutting down. To be honest, other than a passing reference to it I had never really heard of it before the story on Mashable. And I did not read anything at all about a popular outcry on the internet to save tr.im. I am going with this being a PR stunt.

Member Avatar for Hirohurl

Thanks for coming back and letting us know. I wonder if this kind of stunt (if that's what it was) really works... The one thing you don't want to happen is for a URL shortening service to shut down and leave you high and dry... So for such a company to play on that fear doesn't seem very clever, whatever the short term blip they might gain in publicity...

Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

To be honest, I never ever heard of until now. I bet you that now that site is receiving much more traffic.

Member Avatar for MktgRob

To be honest, I never ever heard of until now. I bet you that now that site is receiving much more traffic.

And any added traffic will be thanks to a clever if somewhat misleading PR campaign. The question I have for the forum now is, would you try a similar PR stunt for your company if you thought it would work and not hurt your brand?

Member Avatar for MktgRob

Mashable is reporting that a number of the major URL shortening services are banding together and joining 301works.org as a way of providing protection and support to the smaller ones. Does anyone have any info on 301works.com?

Member Avatar for MktgRob

To add to the URL shortening world, I just read on Mashable that WordPress has just introduced their own URL shortening capability. This could impact a number of the other independent URL shortening services like tinyurl, bit.ly and or course tr.im.

Member Avatar for MktgRob

In yet another bizarre twist to this whole story, 's parent company Nambu Network has announced that it is renouncing ownership of and that the url shortening service will become open source. During the announcement the owner of Nambu took shots at bit.ly, which organized 301works.org to help save tr.im. Nambu ownership claimed that bit.ly was acting out of self interest and made an offer for tr.im.

Color me skeptical but I experienced a similar situation at a company I once worked for. One of our competitors made an offer to my company, not to acquire it, but to let my employer acquire the competitor with no strings attached in terms of management roles, company name or anything. They made this offer privately and with no fanfare in the press. My employer publicly denounced the offer and then allowed my company to be acquired by another company.

I think this whole series of events is nothing more than a PR stunt by Nambu who decided to unload a business unit that could not compete with the big names and did so in a way to make them look magnanimous (by giving the technology to the masses) while taking a parting shot at the company they couldn't compete with. What do you think? The url (unshortened) to the mashable article on this is below.

http://mashable.com/2009/08/17/tr-im-community-owned/

Member Avatar for me!

I'm using and it works pretty good, plus they offer a social updater service for free, you just have to register

Member Avatar for mackone

Just because this one service is down doesn't mean the death of all URL shortners.

Member Avatar for Member 784332

URL shorteners wouldn't be necessary if we started using shorter URLs to begin with. The links that Google uses are atrociously long. However, since URL shorteners like bit.ly have the added value of simply tracking, I feel they have staying power.

Member Avatar for me!

also offers URL tracking, you just have to register and login. And I've heard tht their URLs get crawled pretty fast

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