Where do Short URLs Go When They Die?

Written by Dana Oshiro / December 1, 2009 2:00 PM / 5 Comments

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In late October, after Bit.ly had firmly established itself as Twitter's service of choice, it looked like URL shortener service Cligs would close down. As of today, the company will see a new management team as social bookmarking service Mister Wong has agreed to acquire it for an undisclosed sum.

Says Clig's founder Pierre Far, "I'm very happy with Mister Wong as they have an excellent track record of building large communities and keeping them happy. They also have the resources to continue the development of the service and keep it competitive in the market. Cligs has always been a side project, but the service grew too big to take care of in my spare time." Far began his quest for a buyer in early October.

In August ReadWriteWeb covered the commercial demise of URL shortener service Tr.im and its subsequent resurrection as an open source release. A number of services have failed to find exit strategies in this crowded space so it appears that Far's deal with Mister Wong is fortunate one.

When we asked Far where short links go when they die, he pointed to 301works.org . 301works is an Internet Archives initiative created to preserve short URL links in the event of a shutdown. If a short URL company faces closure 301works takes control of shortening domain services and ensures that links remain intact. While the technical side of the program has not been completely laid out, a number of companies have agreed to show the 301works seal including Bit.ly, Cligs, Twurl, Awe.sm and AppsFire. To apply check out 301works.org here.

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Comments

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I won't give my URLs to a shortener I don't control ever again. See example of fro{dot}gs. Or don't. Site is hacked, loading a virus.

Users can't fully trust the commercial entities behind shortening services.

What kind of dirt will be on your short URLs in a few years?

Your links are your property. If they go dead, be it. There is a trust factor to consider.

URL shortening services are so open to cloaking and many sorts of invisible filthy monetisation practices.

Posted by: Frank Malina | December 1, 2009 3:37 PM

I don't have the answer to monetizing short URLs. Obviously, or I would have sold it to tr.im, which was also my shortener of choice. But what this should open up for discussion is the future of "free use" online. The idea that a business can give away all of its services - bandwidth in this case - and still survive is a very flawed business model. I'm including twitter itself in this. I'm sure investors in twitter are doing so because they want to be "part" of this thing when it begins to make money. What will that be, I wonder? I bet the INVESTORS are wondering, too.

Posted by: Vitamin C | December 1, 2009 11:45 PM

tinurl I think is a site that helps with that. I don't know what they get out of it but I have seen people use it.

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2236872

Posted by: Force Factor | December 2, 2009 12:53 AM

I started using a self-hosted service a few months ago: http://yourls.org/

I was lucky enough to obtain a two letter domain. There are still a few around.

Posted by: Michael Gorey | December 2, 2009 1:41 AM

I, too, think self hosting is the answer. I mean, if everybody and his brother has a blog, why not a short url service too?

Posted by: Tad Zane | December 2, 2009 3:40 AM