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Twitter Adopts TinyURL

Posted by Nick O'Neill on January 16th, 2008 10:38 AM

I’m not sure if I’m late to the game on this one. It appears that Twitter has now adopted the TinyURL as a method for shortening all URLs posted to their site. I went to go post a link to my new posting on AllFacebook and it was automatically shortened by Twitter. This is something that many users have been calling for including Jeremiah Owyang who has made a twitter the other day asking if this should become a default for the system.

It looks like Twitter was listening because now long URLs are automatically shortened. I’m a little confused though because seconds before I posted my tweet, another user posted a full URL to another site and it wasn’t automatically converted. Have you noticed anything similar? It appears to have just been turned on because there are a number of other users who have full URLs appearing.

This only took place from within the Twitter website. When I use the Twhirl application that I previously reviewed, I end up shortening the url via snurl.org. Am I going crazy here? Also, why am I spending so much time Twittering?

Update
In testing my theory, not all URLs are shortened. They must surpass a certain length. Let me know if you figure out the magical url length that is automatically shortened.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 10:38 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 2 Comments

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    I've read a couple of blog posts over the last few days indicating that Twitter is using TinyURL's API - and discussing whether Twitter should just make their own URL-shortener rather than relying on an outside service.

    But I don't see why they need a URL-shortener at all (one that acts as a forwarder, anyway). Why can't the API just accept links directly without it counting towards the 140-character limit? Or they can charge us 20 characters per link if they insist; and display URLs as "http://www.socialtimes.com/2008..." or just as hyperlinks around words if possible.

    I 'get' the 140-char limit, but having us worry about how to enter URLs, and whether or not the forwarding will work - not to mention our recipients having no idea where the link is going... Well, I think the whole thing is an unecessary limitation!
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    The TinyURL integration has been around for at least several months now. It only shortens urls above a certain character limit, but my urls have been shortened by Twitter for quite awhile now. Also, if you use Snitter, there's a feature in it that will use snurl.com, an even shorter url, to shorten your links.

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