Twitter is fixing links
Last year I complained about URL shorteners on Twitter, and proposed a solution. Today they announced that they’re adopting something similar:
All links shared on Twitter.com or third-party apps will be wrapped with a t.co URL. A really long link such as http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048 might be wrapped as http://t.co/DRo0trj for display on SMS, but it could be displayed to web or application users as amazon.com/Delivering- or as the whole URL or page title.
My guess is that Twitter clients will just use the domain as the link text, but either way it’s a big win for usability and readability. Any suggestions on what domains I should punish on Unladen Follow?
Jun 8 2010
11:31 pm
I often hear people complain about FourSquare and Gowalla posts, you could certainly count those, but they were already using their own shortening services.
There aren’t any specific sites I can justify punishing people for, it really depends on the context. I’d unfollow someone regularly linking to Fox or CNN but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing for everyone.
Oh, and I hate Mashable, but I suspect I’m alone in that.
Jun 8 2010
11:38 pm
That’s probably true, although this change will allow for other interesting link-related apps built on the API.
Jul 29 2010
3:07 am
The shortening of URL’s on Twitter is a blessing in disguise, and i am glad to hear that due to a suggestion on your part, similar was implemented, i am a avid user of Twitter daily, hence the short URL’s for me are good
cheers