If you currently click on a ow.ly shortened URL you will be shown a server error page at ow.ly – not the URL you or the publisher intended you to see. Proponents of these services have so far ignored the main problem; trusting a third party. I guess they see the problem now when potential visitors to their site are stopped by a server error on someone else’s site.
The question of trust in this regard is especially important because these services has no working business model. Also any developer can create such a service in less than an hour making the barriers of entry for this service extremely low. Expect to see URL shortener services changing their tactics: Digg launched their already much hated DiggBar last week. This service unlike most other url shortener services wraps the actual landing page in a frame and adds a top-frame bar with Digg information. Ow.ly is also now doing this (unsure if this feature is new to this service). The problem for site owners is that they have no control over how these services will change. DiggBar is already “stealing” link-juice by having a digg-shortened link on Delicious instead of the original url. Also DiggBar and Ow.ly responds with a frameset (200 http status code) instead of a redirect (301 http status code). This can result in a lower pagerank as Google will not see the link from “Site X” to “Site Y” but instead from Digg.com to “Site Y”. In my view URL shorteners are just plain evil. They add an extra unnecessary layer on the web.
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- Digggate:
Conspiracy Theory or Brave New World for Digg (readwriteweb.com) - Digg: DiggBar is Good
For You, Really Good For Us (mashable.com) - Is
the DiggBar Content Theft? (plagiarismtoday.com) - Digg
copies StumbleUpon, Reddit with the DiggBar (inquisitr.com) - Digg:
I Want My PageRank Back! (themindstorms.blogspot.com) - Use
BackupURL To Save & Share A Website As You See It (makeuseof.com)
After one of my readers complained about me using HootSuite’s ow.ly links (he thought the framing raised some copyright issues), I asked HootSuite about giving me the option to remove it.
They responded that the ability to move the frame will be an option in their “premium” account, meaning that you will have to pay for it.
By the way, the HootSuite tool bar has been in place as long as I have been using it, which is for 3 months.
The other beef with services such as Ow.ly that many haven’t mentioned is the fact that they are making money off content that doesn’t belong to them. Google Adsense for example. Shouldn’t web owners get a cut? At least those who do not want to share their content?
See Doctrow’s and Kottke’s issues with URL shorteners generally – seems like a good feature for tweetdeck to develop (showing and saving all full URLs in your twitterfeed without you having to click through the services.
Angie: Which URL shortening services display ads? From what I can see it seems to be focused on gaining visitors to their own site as well as provide additional features. I.e. DiggBar.
mlstotts: I use Nambu (OSX Twitter client) and it will automatically expand short URLs. For all URLs it will just display the domain name while it will show a tooltip with the full original URL in addition to the short URL.
Ironicly several readers are now finding this post via an ow.ly URL: http://ow.ly/2RQH 🙂
1. Thou shalt not FRAME my URL.
2. Thou shalt not display any advertisements during the redirection of my URL.
3. Thou shalt not promote additional information during the redirection of my URL.
http://www.url360.me/commandments.html