Today, after seeing several prominent Social Media figures Twitter status updates using the TinyURL shortener service, I decided to motion for a TinyURL Boycott on Twitter.

Issue #1
Users unaware of more robust URL shortener services and the advantages they provide.

As we engage in social media, an important factor to understanding our ROI (how ever you may measure your return) is learning how to gather information so that you may apply traditional analytics. By now you should be VERY familiar with website traffic statistics and how to measure those critical data points to gain insight into your websites traffic, right? You’ve likely even hammered someone youself on their websites number of Unique Visitors, Pageview, Referring Sites, or Keyword Referrals. This is crucial information both for internal digestion and external comprehension of a websites performance.

I’ll let you in on a little secret (its not really a secret but play along), you can measure some of these very same things with those silly links you are sharing via your social media indulgences! There are actually a few services that provide this type of information. Guess which commonly used shortener is NOT in the list? However, analytical data for your shortened URL’s is essentially the opposite of what you may be accustomed to. Shortened URL data points are via outbound links whereas normal website data points are usually drawn from inbound links. If your brain is starting to hurt, dont worry its really not that complicated

Issue #2
The Twitter service itself automatically utilizing an inferior URL shortener service.

Another interesting twist to this is that many users posting TinyURL’s Shortened links may actually not even be aware of this! Twitter, to preserve its valuable 140chars of tweetscape, actually auto invokes the TinyURL service behind the scenes to shorten URL’s in user status updates.

Twitter Support > FAQ > Why Does Twitter use TinyURL?

Does Twitter allow html in web updates?
No. We escape all html for security purposes. However, if you paste in a link that is less than 30 characters, we’ll post it in its entirety. If it’s longer than 30 characters, we’ll convert it to a tiny URL.

Why does Twitter use tiny URL?
Tiny is tidy! Tiny URL takes long, ugly, 30+ characters links with an obscene amount of punctuation, such as ? or &, and converts them to slim, trim, tidy, pretty, Twitter links that mesh well with our 140 character limit.

I’m not sure this FAQ really answers the questions at hand: “Why does Twitter use TinyURL“.

Put a little Analytics in your Shortener

So, you’re ready to shorten your URL’s like the kewl kids and start gaining those rich insights into your shared links? GOOD! Lucky for you there are a few good choices, here are my personal top 3:

	Bit.ly - Organize all your Bit.ly URL’s into a single account - Watch your click stream to real-time click traffic including referrer, IP Address, Country, Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct - Create custom vanity URL aliases - Social Media conversation Data - See users who have shortened the same base URL - Full data access via Bit.ly API
	BudUrl - Inbound links redirect with a 307 for maximum SEO performance - Organize all of your BudURLs into a single account - Add notes to each BudURL to keep track of where you place it (ex: Twitter profile link, LinkedIn comment, Email signature, banner advertisement, etc.) - Watch your Click Stream to see real-time click activity including the referrer, IP Address, Network, etc. - Create custom BudURL vanity aliases - Edit destination URL - Reset click values - Delete BudURLs - Unique Visits per click - Download click traffic - See the keywords used to find your BudURL - Detailed analytics by source, referrer, type, browser, date, etc.
	TweetBurner - Organize all your Bit.ly URL’s into a single account - View your unique click traffic - View your Top5 clicked URL’s - Built into the Twhirl Air Twitter Client

Of course, I could hardly scratch the surface on all the URL Shorteners out there but hopefully just sharing my top3 will get you trying some new things. If interested, Chris Messina has put together a, beyond impressive, list of URL Shortener services via pictures of the various services. This is going to blow your mind Im sure, the list is out of control, and again probably doesn’t cover them all!

I am currently hooked on Bit.ly, both for its embracing links from a social media perspective and my ability to consume its API. To give you some insight to this information, here are a few screenshots from the data provided on one of my shortened URLs:

Allows you to see other Twitter Users who have shortened this same base URL, or perhapse those who have ReTweeted your shortened URL. The above shows myself as the 3rd Twitter User to shortened the base URL, along with my twitter status update.

Traffic sources lends visibility on social media click trends both on your shortened URL as well as Total Traffic for shortened URL’s via Bit.ly for your Base URL.

What kind of analytics would we have if there were no pretty graphs and charts?

So, now that I feel better having gotten this TinyURL rant off my chest, have I converted any TinyURL users?

I leave you with three questions:

1. Why does Twitter use TinyURL over other services?
2. Why are you using TinyURL still?
3. Are you down with the Boycott?

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