« Public Figure = “Substantial Public Debate”
Can Privacy Exist on the Web? »

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.

Posted in News
  

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

    • ^
    • v
    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!
    • ^
    • v
    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.

Trackbacks

blog comments powered by Disqus