When Twittering gained fame in the Web, URL shorteners found a hot new business too. With just a 140-character limit, users who want to post lengthy addresses need the help of these shorteners.
But what happens when the no. 1 microbloggling service chooses just one? What happens to others?
Apparently, they close down. Or at least that’s what happened to Tr.im on Sunday after parent company Nambu Networks failed to find a buyer for the service. Tr.im offers “ quick, easy, full-featured URL shortening with integrated posting to social networks”.
In blog post from Nambu Networks, the company expressed their regret over the discontinued service of Tr.im but made no secret about their feelings towards their rival Bit.ly or to the social media site, which the latter uses as its default URL shortener.
“Twitter has all but sapped us of any last energy to double-down and develop tr.im further. What is the point? With bit.ly the Twitter default, and with us having no inside connection to Twitter, tr.im will lose over the the long-run no matter how good it may or may not be at this moment, or in the future,” the post read.
Tweets with Tri.im URLs will be affected though. In an announcement posted on their site, Tr.im has assured previous users of their service that “all tr.im links will continue to redirect, and will do so until at least December 31, 2009.”
