Google announced their own URL shortener. Great. But some startups may be panicking. The TechCrunch title says it all: Bit.ly Just Got Fu.kd: Facebook And Google Get Into The Short URL Game.
Of course bit.ly is not the only possible casualty, but they are the dominant one in the URL shortening space – or at least they have been so far…
But what most commentators haven’t noticed is another feature from Google: FeedBurner social, which might very well kill TwitterFeed. Yes, why bother with an intermediary when we can now have FeedBurner send our blog post to Twitter directly? Check out the URL for this very post on Twitter: it’s the shiny new goog.gl variety.
And it’s not over yet.. just as we’re absorbing what all this means, here’s news of Twitter testing business features, including the ability of multiple users posting on behalf of one organization.. Somehow I don’t think CoTweet, HootSuite and a bunch of others are too happy about it.
Are they all doomed? Not necessarily – right now they all offer additional features (multiple accounts, scheduling, stats..etc), but nevertheless, it must not be very comforting when the Ultimate Giant enters their space…
Oh, yeah, I know … we’ll soon see the statements from all these startups welcoming Google, validating their markets…etc. 🙂
Update: Talk about additional features, Bit.ly has just launched a Pro service, allowing for custom domains. It’s quite ironic to see these titles juxtaposed on TechMeme:
CoTweet’s already talking about how they’re working with the Contributors feature.
Also, Bit.ly hasn’t been the dominant one in URL shortening for all that long – remember Minnesota’s own TinyURL? It was for a lot longer prior to Bit.ly coming onto the scene. Of course, we hardly ever hear about ’em anymore.
The half-life of URL shorteners appears to be…uh, shortening?
I still have TinyURL, not by choice, but that’s what EchoPhone uses, who knows why…
And yeah…short.en.ing
It is always fun to see the competitive landscape change and looking forward to the innovative ideas which will flow in 2010 in the race to stay competitive.
~Clint
No matter what the tool or platform, Google is the new Microsoft. They will develop their own version of everything online. Such as the new smart phone they came out with. It is only a matter of time that there are as many or more apps for it than the iPhone. Looks at ll the companies developing a linking service with Twitter. All I want is someone to click on my little Adsense ads. Give me my 5 cents and I’m happy.
Dr. Dave Hale
The Internet Marketing Professor