A few weeks ago, Google opened up its Goo.gl URL shortener to all. It has some neat tricks like real-time stats tracking, and QR code creation, but it turns out to have another feature. It's super fast. Some testing done by Pingdom shows that in most situations, Google's URL shortener is faster at directing users to pages than the competition. 

Page load times in North America and Europe were tested, and Goo.gl was the winner by a country mile. Is.gd actually had slightly better performance in Europe, but it's slow North American load times hurt it in the combined calculation. The popular Bit.ly URL shortener was found to be three times slower than Goo.gl.

We are talking about a few hundred milliseconds here. So the difference in real life might be negligible. It's more about bragging rights than anything else. Would you be swayed by these sorts of tests to use a different service?

The rapid adoption of .ly domains over the last few years has resulted in a great many services being built around these clever domain names. We're talking about sites like Bit.ly, Ad.ly, and Ow.ly. Now all that is in jeopardy after computing consultant Ben Metcalf had his domain, vb.ly, seized by the Libyan government. You see, .ly is the top level domain for Libya, and the controlling body (NIC.ly) can revoke domains as they see fit. 

What did Metcalf do that resulted in his domain being yanked? NIC.ly felt that the content of his site was not in keeping with Libyan Islamic/Sharia Law. Based on what Metcalf has been able to find out, the Libyan government is taking a harder line on deregistering domains. NIC.ly seems to have decided to attempt regulating content on .ly sites. 

Previous reports also indicate that NIC.ly is trying to keep .ly domains of less than 4 characters for use in Libya. So this new strictness could be connected. The boom in .ly sites has been good business for Libya, so it's hard to see why they'd sabotage it. What do you think the angle is here? Are more sites in danger?

Twitter seems bent on developing official alternatives to all the third party software and services individuals have developed. After releasing a Blackberry Twitter client, and buying an iPhone client, Twitter is announcing they intend to create their own URL shortening service. Evan Williams himself made the announcement at Chirp. Until now, Bit.ly has been tightly integrated with the social networking service, that partnership seems uncertain now.

This isn't coming completely out of left field, though. Twitter investor Fred Wilson strongly suggested in a blog post that URL shortening services would do well to stop relying on Twitter. The speculation is that the recently acquired twee.tt domain would be used for this purpose. Twitter already has  short URL service called twt.tl that is used as an anti-spam system for direct messages.

If Twitter does indeed go through with this, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Bit.ly. Third-party twitter clients could still continue to use the service, though its roll may be decreased. The Bit.ly Pro service could help them along as well. What do you think about Twitter's course of action? Do you feel sorry for developers, or should they have known this could happen?