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Tr.im Stops Web URL Shortening, Continues API

by | Saturday, 20th Mar 2010 | 6 Comments | Share

The owners of Tr.im have been through quite a saga, first raising a hue over using Bit.ly as the default URL shortening service (which it does not know), then trying to sell it, and then going Open Source.

However, it looks like the final nail has been hit into the coffin now. According to a new notice on the site, Tr.im will no longer be shortening URLs anymore, so users will have to use services like bit.ly or the other URL Shortening services.

The notice on the Tr.im site says this:

tr.im is no longer accepting URL shortening requests via its website. May we respectfully suggest that you choose one of the many other wonderful alternatives available.

Please understand that this does not affect any software that has tr.im available within it. tr.im’s API is available, and redirections are working normally.

This means that only tools or services which make use of the Tr.im API will be able to use it, for the rest of them it is goodbye.

For me, URL shortening was never going to be a huge business, and there are literally tons of services which will do the job, it is just that Tr.im did not get their business model right and bit.ly did, which is why they are now the leaders in the URL shortening market.

Thanks for the tip @vipinonline

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I am the editor-in-chief and owner of Techie Buzz. I love coding and have contributed to several open source projects in the past. You can know more about me and my projects by visiting my Personal Website.I am also a social networking enthusiast and can be found active on twitter, you can follow Keith on twitter @keithdsouza. You can click on my name to visit my Google+ profile.

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  1. Gojeg on March 20th, 2010 at 11:04 pm #

    Hmm..bad news.

    Although I never use trim, but this tool can be an alternative.

    Now, bit.ly is being a king in URL shortener market. :(

  2. Sean on March 21st, 2010 at 8:51 pm #

    What exactly is the "url shortening market"? Does anyone actually make money?

    • Keith Dsouza on March 22nd, 2010 at 8:36 pm #

      @Sean – Bit.ly does make money I think based on advanced statistics. Considering that many of the links pass through them, they have a huge amount of data about demographics which advertisers love, they would definitely pay for that sort of data.

      Other than that Bit.ly also has a pro-model, which although free now can be definitely monetized to a great extent in the future.