The past days have been busy for URL shortening services. Both Google and Facebook had launched their own, semi-private URL shortening domains. After that, the market leader bit.ly announced the Pro version for companies and businesses.
The Google URL Shortener works from the domain goo.gl. The Google Toolbar and the feed hosting service Feedburner have been updated to include new sharing options using this service. This way, Google is adding a Socialize service and entering the domain of Twitterfeed & Co. However, Google does currently not provide access statistics as e.g. bit.ly does. This is what a tweeted feed item looks like:
Facebook has not talked much about their new URL shortening service located at fb.me. All existing URLs starting with “www.facebook.com” can seamlessly be called with “fb.me” instead. This way, profile pages can get as short as http://fb.me/mynetx.
Therewhile, it seems that bit.ly knew about those in beforehand, as just after that, bit.ly launched their Pro service. Bit.ly representative Todd Levy announced:
The Pro service provides custom short URLs powered by bit.ly. Publishers and bloggers will be able to use their own short domain names to point to pages on their sites. […] When you see a short URL like nyti.ms, you know the destination web site before clicking on the link.
The usage of uncommon top level domains is changing constantly.
Is it good for the economy of those small countries like the Isle of Man, provider of “.im”, or Montenegro, where “.me” is originating?