Tag: Bit.ly

How Will Bit.ly Work with Twitter’s Link Wrapping?

Besides hinting at new features and talking about user stats, Twitter also made a couple announcements this week. One is that all Twitter apps use OAuth. The other is that it will start tracking every t.co link users click. This is Twitter’s own default URL-shortener.

Twitter sent an email to users saying, "In the coming weeks, we will be expanding the roll-out of our link wrapping service t.co, which wraps links in Tweets with a new, simplified link… When this happens, all links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be wrapped with a t.co URL."

"When you click on these links from Twitter.com or a Twitter application, Twitter will log that click. We hope to use this data to provide better and more relevant content to you over time."

This may be a good thing for users from a security standpoint. Symantec says that short URL spam and phishing attacks are rising sharply. "With the announcement that Twitter will be rolling-out its own short URL service, many malicious attacks through this route will be thwarted," says Amanda Grady, Senior Analyst at Symantec. "Through Twitter’s added analysis, they will be able to check if the short URL is directing users towards a site with malware and alert them in advance. This should reduce phishing attacks on Twitter accounts and prevent criminals from directing users to infected websites.

What about other URL-shortening services? Well, Bit.ly Twitter’s old favorite, has posted an update on the matter. "Following this week’s OAuth and apps announcements, some of our users have inquired about how bit.ly will work with Twitter’s new link-wrapping service," says Bit.ly’s Matt LeMay. "Link-wrapping will enable Twitter to collect traffic data and block spam, but it will not interfere with bit.ly analytics, bit.ly Pro custom domains, or bit.ly Enterprise usage — you will be able to shorten, share and track links with bit.ly exactly as you do now."

"Many of our partners are already using their bit.ly Pro short links with t.co, since all links shared via the Twitter Tweet Button have been wrapped in t.co since the button launched last month," he adds. "Link-wrapping will happen automatically and invisibly in the background."

Bit.ly says its been working closely with Twitter and other social media platforms to continue improvements across the web.

September 3, 2010
Will Bit.ly Make Email Better?

While some have all but written email’s obituary, it continues to become clearer that email is not going away. Facebook infamously implied that it was on the way out, yet has done nothing to lend any legitimacy to this.

Google sought to change email forever with the launch of Google Wave. A few weeks ago, the company announced that Wave was being shut down (though some of the technology behind it will likely resurface in other products).

Nobody has ever said that email is perfect. That would simply be false. There is room for improvement, and it looks like Bit.ly (or at least one of its staff members) of all companies may be the next to take on the challenge.

The New York Times ran an article about Bit.ly lead scientist Hilary Mason and her customized email classification system that she has set up for her own personal inbox. It sounds pretty useful, and could appeal to a lot of potential users. The NYT’s Nick Bilton writes:

Ms. Mason has built layers on top of her Gmail account that follow a series of rules to correctly prioritize which e-mails she should read first. She calls the program the E-Mail Classifier and has given this little contraption the job of constantly reorganizing her messages like a magician shuffling a deck of cards.

…

For example, the E-mail Classifier determines if you have e-mailed with Ms. Mason before. If you have, your message is pushed higher up a queue of other new messages. If you both correspond on a regular basis, you travel higher still.

Sender and subject line information are important parts to the algorithm the program uses.

This may or may not be a big release from Bit.ly, but the article says Mason hopes to release the code this fall, so others can use it.

What this really represents to me is that while social media has its value, it is no replacement for email. Here we have a company that is very much based in the social media world, finding ways to enhance their own email experience, as opposed to replacing it.

August 23, 2010
Yahoo-Bit.ly Acquisition Rumored Possible

Bit.ly, the URL shortener with a fish logo, might itself be snapped up in the not-too-distant future. A new report indicates that Yahoo and several other (unidentified) companies are in talks to acquire the company, although it’s not time for business card shops to send out congratulatory notes/ads just yet.

Om Malik began his article by writing, "Yahoo and some of the other web giants have been kicking the tires on New York-based URL shortening service Bit.ly, according to a few people in the know. The interest in the company has increased over the past 60 days or so."

Which sounds promising enough. Two months is a fair amount of time to uncover any flaws, after all, and any hint of competition might be enough to send bids higher.

Then Malik continued, "Conversations are said it to be in early stages, and the company raised $2 million in venture capital in March 2009 from Ron Conway and other super angel investors."

So it sounds like potential buyers aren’t in a big rush (Yahoo’s CFO recently talked about being cautious when it comes to acquisitions), and Bit.ly shouldn’t be short of cash.

We’ll see what happens. Hopefully various parties will chime in with confirmations (or denials) now that Malik’s broken the story.

July 19, 2010