Geek Tested:

First URL Shortener Meltdown Averted; tr.im Back in Business

Posted 08/13/09 at 02:04:21 PM by Paul Lilly

URL shortening services are all well and good, but what happens when one of them goes down? If that happens, you're looking at a lot of dead links, whether they appear in forum posts or magazine articles. That appeared to be the case with tr.im, who recently went offline but is back up and running.

"We have restored tr.im and re-opened its website," tr.im wrote in a blog. "We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the popular response, and the countless public and private appeals I have received to keep tr.im alive."

The blog post went on to complain that bit.ly "has a monopoly position" in the URL shortening business that it cannot compete with, not unless "Twitter offers choice." Nevertheless, tr.im vowed to keep operating indefinitely while the service considers its financial options for the future.

Full blog post here - http://tr.im/wlgC

Image Credit: urbanoutfitters.com

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Other than this article,
Submitted by jcollins on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 2:03pm

Other than this article, I've never heard of tr.im before, nor seen any shortened links using it. So, why should I care about it?

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4te.biz
Submitted by Techrocket9 on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 12:30pm

It's not the first to go down. What about 4te.biz? See: http://tr.im/4te_biz

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Yep
Submitted by nmanguy on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 11:45am

I've noticed that lots of web sites, instead of linking to a site, will use a tinyurl address. Why? I have no clue. It's hidden behind the hyperlink, so no one sees it, but they still use tinyurl. PCWorld has a good idea with their find system, perhaps MPC should start something like that instead of using tinyurl. Just say "More can be found at MPC#1asf9", then you go to maximumpc.com, click the "Got an MPC#?" link, and type it in, or go to something like maximumpc.com/mpcn/1asf9.

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