Bit.ly is a simple URL shortener.
Bit.ly is extremely fast with realtime reporting, but it has two major limitations
- Once you set the destination URL, you cannot change it
- You cannot create independent click-counters to the same URL
Spam Protection
Four kinds of protection against spam and malware- Transparency
A preview plug-in shows users the long urls behind shortened hashes
Append a + to any bit.ly link to see more information, like the destination URL - Real-time spam-filtering services like SURBL and Google Safe Browsing
Uses multiple filters, and reaching out to companies with promising technology
When a link or domain is flagged as spam, shows an interstitial warning page, like Firefox (freezing or deleting bit.ly links would make bit.ly seem broken) - Don’t recycle hashes
Users cannot change mappings once they have been created (a bit.ly short URL will take you to the same destination on every click)
Spammers cannot bait and switch by offering quality content first and then malware - Report spam
Email spam you find to [email protected]
If you are incorrectly marked as spam, send a note to [email protected] and they will investigate
Bit.ly does not maintain a whitelist of its own, so if SURBL has marked you as a spammer, you will have to go directly to SURBL to get off the block list
Background
12-people development team
4.2 billion clicks a month
growing 25% a month
Owns 80% of twitter url shorteners
Best of the best practices
All about infrastructure, scale and redundancy
Co-located in same places Facebook and Twitter
Automated clicks are ignored (no Google bots), only real users are counted
Bit.ly Enterprise
Can connect with the users who use your shortened links
eg
^-- Bit.ly enterprise users
Seeing tgn.ly inspires more confidence than bit.ly
The info page (+ suffix) will always redirect to bit.ly
Everything on tgn.ly will work on bit.ly, but nothing on bit.ly will work on tgn.ly
$1,000 a month
How others have paid for the service
Location-based service (see who else is here, who is the most active (the mayor) of the location, and what they think)
Badges awarded (if you go to 5 bars in one night, you get "bender" badge, if you go to 5 cities, you get "world traveler")
Takes GPS information, while walking around, checks you into places (like Joe's pub, don't each the fish, but the disco fries are delicious)
Created a million active users in one year
eg
Idea; Internet GPS
Available today
end-to-end branding
no rate limits
realtime datafeed of underlying click-level analytics
allows others to create tgn.ly links
Multiple Position
http://thegamenet.com/games#header
http://thegamenet.com/games?src=header
Other metrics
No impression tracking or pixel actions
Just URL clicks
Benchmarks
Bit.ly enterprise will compare sites similar to yours (not individually identifiable) to an average
Limitations
Cannot change destination URL
By design, every bit.ly link is a 301 redirect (permanent move)
Only solution is to create your own redirect service behind bit.ly