In this video about two URL shorteners hosted on Libyan servers, I share why bit.ly is better than ow.ly:
Aaron Renn and Alex Howard–urbanophile and digiphile, respectively–also hate ow.ly. Most of the proponents are those who use HootSuite, the Twitter management solution that automatically creates ow.ly links.
Cited inspiration to Rebecca Leaman and Terry Starbucker.
No related posts.
Learn more about Ari and AriWriter by visiting 
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
So what do you think of the brand new URL shortener br.st? I’ve been using it this week and I like it. I wish it had a few bit.ly features and vice versa. I’m pretty sure br.st handles URLs properly.
Yeah it’s funny, I stopped using ow.ly/HootSuite recently, but for different reasons. Now that I’m on a homemade PC instead of an old Mac Mini, I can run TweetDeck without the dreaded spinning beachball. Also I’m a Stat Whore, and bit.ly / br.st give you real time click stats. With HootSuite you have to wait up to 15 minutes.
The things I like about br.st are the page preview, and how it tells you which state a click came from, if it can gather the data. It even works for other countries sometimes. I like to know which part of India or France a click came from. It could be useful data if you were marketing to a geographically targeted audience, for example.
Thanks for the information Ari. I hadn’t even noticed that the URL stays the same w/ ow.ly. Too bad, there are a lot of things I like about HootSuite. But I’ve already gotten used to the other URL shorteners anyway.
New from Jason Dunn: Why it IS worth it to fight spammers on Twitter
It seems a new URL shortener starts operating every week, so it’s inconceivable (for me, anyway) to keep track. I never heard of br.st.
Here’s some info on br.st. Don’t worry, it’s safe to click this link.
http://br.st/uK
Ari,
The majority of our users love the ow.ly bar, but we absolutely appreciate that some don’t. For those that don’t like it, you can opt out. Here’s how… http://ow.ly/odJE
I don’t like frames either. I feel like I am being pushed into the frame, and it’s not for my benefit.
But, now thanks to you, I know I can hit the little ‘x’ – and that’s the first thing I shall do in future when I am directed to an Ow.ly page.
in fact, I just searched Twitter for an Ow.ly reference, went to the link, clicked the ‘x’ and – bingo.
In fact, it’s not that hard to do. I just have to remember to do it. But in the scale of things-I-don’t-like, it trails far behind the other frame container that I definitely find a pain – and that is stumbleupon.com Even though I like stumbleupon and use su.pr, I still don’t like being pushed around by frames.
Good post.
Great proof, Bit.LY seems to be a great tool – definitely easy to use. They shouldn’t mask URL’s, it should forward.
I have to agree with you that bit.ly is way better. Frames are a pain in the behind and just waste our time. I don’t think bit.ly is going out of business soon but Tr.im announced that they were gonna close. So I’ll stick with bit.ly for sure.
Another great addon to Firefox to have is at longurlplease.com which will show you the actual url of shortened urls so that you’ll know what domain you’re going to before clicking. This is useful because of spam viruses going around through tweeted urls.
All the best,
Eren
New from Eren Mckay: Whitney Houston interview on Oprah Winfrey show
Is it really so difficult to hit the little x at the top right corner to remove the framing? I don’t think it is that much trouble. I use ow.ly all the time since it comes with my prefered client manager- Hootsuite. Its a great and convenient tool for me to be able to keep track of clicks on my posts and I don’t have to leave Hootsuite to do it. That’s one reason I love Hootsuite so much- convenience.
{ 1 trackback }