Filed under: Utilities, Web services, Microblogging
W.tf?! Tr.im not closing after all
Tr.im, one of the most popular URL-shortening services, shut down last week because its owners saw no way to monetize the service in such a competitive market. Twitter's choice of Bit.ly as its default link-shrinker means that service dominates the market, with smaller players like Ow.ly abd Tr.im fighting over what's left. Tr.im has its supporters, though, and they apparently contacted Tr.im's owners, Nambu, in such high numbers that the service has now re-opened. Creating new links seems to work fine, and all of your old URLs should be right where you left them.
Was this whole thing a publicity stunt, intended to bring greater visibility to Tr.im? Nambu says no.
They're still looking to sell Tr.im so it can live on, but not to "an unknown group or individual" who might compromise users' existing Tr.im links in some way. I believe that this wasn't a publicity stunt, although there's little doubt it brought the service quite a bit of extra attention.
Nambu just seems to have realized that they had little to gain by shutting down abruptly with a message that basically claimed Tr.im was practically worthless. The overwhelming user response seems to have made Nambu realize that's no way to sell something.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AndrewNoNumbers said 11:19PM on 8-11-2009
Good for them. Tr.im has always been my absolute favorite URL shortener.
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mxxcon said 11:44PM on 8-11-2009
did you know that http://w.tf/ is a real site? :)
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Unregistered said 11:49PM on 8-11-2009
If only Google would buy them!
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Jash Sayani said 11:59AM on 8-12-2009
They s**k!
I trust them no more.
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