Monthly Archives: April 2010

Twitter to Launch Their Own URL Shortener

Twitter has announced that they will be launching their own URL shortener, which will be replacing Bit.ly as the default for lengthy links. TechCrunch is convinced that the domain they will be using is twee.tt, which the microblogging service recently acquired.

This should enable Twitter to further their data collection and statistics endeavors, as well as provide an URL shortener that should last as long as Twitter does. It will be interesting to see how things play out.

But what of Bit.ly? How will they fare? Apparently, it won’t effect them much, as Twitter stopped automatically shortening links as of December. Bit.ly is still “encoding” about 3 billion links per month, and their Bit.ly Pro service should help them build a viable business. (There is quite a market for custom-branded short URLs, as well as enhanced statistics.)

The impact on bit.ly may be negligible, at least in the shortrun. It turns out that Twitter stopped using bit.ly as it’s default shortener on Twitter.com back in early December, except for one specific use-case. And even before then, Twitter.com accounted for only about 5 percent of link encodes. Now it is less than 1 percent. Yet bit.ly encoded more than 3 billion links last month an is still growing quite nicely. That is because it is used by many Twitter clients, including Tweetdeck (a betaworks portfolio company).

Ow.ly Removes Toolbar, Launches Second Shortener

HootSuite’s URL shortener, Owl.ly, no longer puts its controversial iframe toolbar atop shortened links. The toolbar has been known to discourage some potential users from trying the HootSuite Twitter client. As a compromise, HootSuite is launching a second shortener, Ht.ly, that offers the same…

I’m Going to be Working with WordPress for GSoC

Some of you may have seen my tweet yesterday. I’ve been accepted into the Google Summer of Code program by the WordPress project. You can read the announcement, with all 15 of the chosen applicants, on the WP development P2 blog. Matt Harzewski, comment…

AppStorm’s Guide to Creating a Podcast Using GarageBand

Mac AppStorm has had, for quite some time, a great tutorial on how to record podcasts with Apple’s GarageBand software. Providing you have a decent microphone, GarageBand should make it fairly easy to record and edit a high-quality podcast. The iTunes Podcast directory is…

BlogBuzz April 24, 2010

iAds: Apple Reinvents Mobile Advertising

One of the things Steve Jobs announced in the iPhone OS 4.0 keynote was Apple’s new advertising platform, “iAds.” It’s something I have high hopes for. I think it will promote the development of more free applications. What’s so special about iAds? For starters,…

Twitter @Anywhere Plugin for WordPress

Want to easily add the basic features of Twitter @Anywhere to your WordPress blog? There’s already a plugin for that. It adds the requisite JavaScript for you, allowing you to enable or disable features with simple options in the WordPress Admin. Currently it supports…

Gizmodo and the iPhone 4G: An Example of Unethical Journalism

On April 19th, 2010, the popular tech blog Gizmodo (owned by Gawker Media) published an article, complete with a photo gallery, detailing the specs of the iPhone 4G. The phone Apple is said to release this summer. The one that’s supposed to be a…

Where Do Bad Hosting Reviews Come From?

I have a review of VPS.net, the hosting provider I use, which I wrote several months ago. It’s given me a chance to observe an interesting occurrence. Despite my positive review of the service, a disproportionate number of comments are decidedly negative in tone.…

BlogBuzz April 17, 2010