The first of my conquests on my journey through Widget Land has been to sign up to www.bit.ly
I have long been a fan of www.tinyurl.com which takes long URLs and turns them into something shorter – which is ideal when you are doing a lot of publishing of information (both online and offline).
And when I saw a newcoming in the pack (www.bit.ly) I didn’t think it was worth investigating – I was happy with what I had.
However, once you start Twittering, it helps to have the sortest URLs possible. And bit.ly takes up less space than tinyurl.com. So, I decided to have a look. And I was well impressed. Not only does it do the same job as TinyURL it also has these great additional features:
- If you sign up, you can post direct to Twitter
- If you add the Bookmarklet to your toolbar, you can convert the URL of the site you are on at a click of a button
- If you’re so inclined, you can track how many visits each link generates
Not only do these save time, they make it just as simple as possible to share interesting sites and articles with others. And it’s fun! Which in turn makes you more inclined to do it. After all, that’s the power of online communities: sharing information.
Summary: it is a must for Twitterers.
With regards,
Cat Young
STW
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/stwonline
- Website: www.stw-online.net
One thing that came to pass this week that MAY be related to bit.ly was that an email I sent to a friend which contained some bit.ly URLs was rejected by his ISP.
The reason for the rejection was ‘unsuitable content’. It’s possible that the wording offended them some how (!) but I doubt it as I was sending information and directions about a band practice.
There were no attachments, so the only other item of suspicion was the links. I know that many SPAM filters assume links are malicious, and I’m wondering if it took a particular dislike to the bit.ly versions.
Does anyone have any experience of this – good or bad?
Can you share with me any ideas of whether bit.ly URLs are frowned upon?
Thanks,
Cat
By: catyoung on 10/07/2009
at 10:17