Bit.ly: URL shortener with built-in tracking

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Productivity

Bit.ly: URL shortener with built-in tracking

by Jay Hathaway Jul 15th 2008

URL-shortening services are plentiful these days, but they're not all equal. There are a few key features we're looking for in our ideal URL-shrinker. We want a bookmarklet, to avoid needless copy-pasting. We want a short base URL for easy Twittering. There's also the ability to custom-name your URLs, so you can tell them apart and they make sense to the people you're sending to. Bit.ly has all of this and more.

Bookmarklet? Check. Short base URL? Check. The only shorter one we've seen is is.gd. Custom naming? Sure thing. But the real kicker is Bit.ly's unique feature: it tracks how many clicks your link gets, and shows you the referrers those clicks are coming from. If someone else has made a different Bit.ly address for that same URL, you can see that, too. Don't be surprised if you see more and more Bit.ly links popping up soon, it might be the best out there right now.

Tags: Bit.ly, link sharing, LinkSharing, TinyURL, URL shortener, UrlShortener

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Ingoal said 10:29AM on 7-15-2008

Well, another shorter one is zz.gd...it is still in beta and doesn't have all the feature yet, but there's even a wordpress-plugin for twitter integration (http://zz.gd/e40d6f)...

Ricky said 10:49AM on 7-15-2008

Doesn't firefox already do this...

Tom said 2:49PM on 7-15-2008

Firefox is not a short url redirection service.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TinyURL and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_redirection

Nadiv said 11:32AM on 7-15-2008

Would someone explain to me, please, what is the business plan behind all those shortening services? Why so many implement them?

Tom said 2:50PM on 7-15-2008

Well, check the Example on tinyurl.com for a really really good demonstration of how they can be handy. Also, some urls break in links because they have their own weird characters, or are just too darn long to fit on the page, so using a tinyurl (or other shortener) is nice.

This article is about bit.ly, one of a few services that, in addition to providing url shortening, also provide a way to track clicks. That's useful.

Paul Nicholson said 4:57PM on 7-15-2008

A friend of mine developed another system like this a while ago. urlzen.com
Nice feature to have.

Rob said 9:36PM on 8-31-2008

If I can I’d like to plug the URL shortener service my website runs, urlShort at http://u.mavrev.com

Currently it offers a simple API for creation via a URL request, a bookmarklet, and the web form with more on the way.

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