As I continue to hone my abilities of predicting the future, I’d like to submit another one for your amusement.

I see an interesting twist on URL shorteners becoming a direct part of corporate web strategies.

We first caught a glimpse of this on April 19th 2009 when a New York Times enthusiast created NytUrl.com, a URL shortener aimed at The New York Times web site articles. Promptly there after, it was shut down.

Shortly there after, Tech Crunch launched its own Short URL: http://tcrn.ch

Today, Amazon jumps into the game with their Short URL: http://amzn.com

Amazon actually has a very unique opportunity in their short URL offering to the web community with their product ISBN Numbers. All you need to access a product on Amazon is http://amzn.com + ISBN

Its time for companies to add URL shortening to their web strategy, now.

My corporate job reminds me, daily, that the reality of an average web strategy is no where near such an agenda - They’re still talking SEO/SEM/PPC/BLOG/ECT.

So, go while you can and register all the cleverly shortened and truncated URL’s.

My lottery ticket to you.

The retweet button encourages blog audiences to retweet the content on twitter. Its available in standard javascript code snippets, much like Digg’s, as well as a WordPress plugin - Which I need to install

I can easily see this capturing a large share of blog real estate which currently belongs to Digg. As more and more surfers of the intertubes turn to Twitter for their ‘news’ this will become the fastest way to spread your blog post message.

It will be interesting to continue to watch this movement as it evolves.

CoTags are a new convention for using signatures when tweeting from a brand account. It’s really simple—just the carat (^) character followed by the person’s initials, or other identifying set of characters.

The concept is like #hashtags. But while #hashtags provide a way to track tweets topically across many users, ^CoTags create a way to associate individual tweets within a shared brand account. And in the process, ^CoTags bring “humanness” to otherwise monolithic branded Twitter accounts.

While ^CoTags can exist by themselves, they’re much more useful if there is a legend that associates them to the information they represent. The question is where to put that legend. For now, the Twitter profile page is the most logical place. But the current limitations that page—only one URL, a 160-character bio, and a background image—pose a challenge.

Here is an example of CoTags both in action on MediaTemples Twitter Profile page as well as their legend:

While the majority of this information was taken directly from a CoTweet Blog post on their CoTags, I felt it was needed to help spread awareness of CoTags on Twitter.

I Googled: “Dan Schawbel twitter“, which like always resulted in the desired results:

Ive found this method to normally return the correct person I am looking for, if they are using Twitter, within the top two or three results. Twitter has also recently launched a built in “Find People” feature, but dropping a Google Search is still the easiest for me. In cases where the results are not as clear, or there are a couple of potential matches on common names you’ll likely have to visit the pages to see if this is really who you are looking for.

In the example above I was quickly returned what I was looking, Dan Schawbel’s Twitter username / URL “twitter.com/danschawbel“. But, wouldnt it be helpful if Twitter better customized page code titles and descriptions for search results? Google has a very clear Webmasters/Site owners Help Document for this very topic to help developers best receive indexed results with relevant titles and descriptions.

Its no mystery where Google got the displayed indexed search result title and description data for my search, but its nice to see just how transparent this is within Twitter’s code:

Search displayed by Google:

Twitter’s HTML Meta Data:

<title>Twitter / danschawbel</title>
<meta content=“Twitter is a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time” name=“description” />
<meta content=“danschawbel” name=“page-user-screen_name” />

The title is clearly the Google Title and the description is the first portion of the pages description. Rocket Science right?! The last portion of text, found in the second line of the description, is less obvious but coming from the Twitter profile bio. This is where the Google Juice comes in with a “number of different sources for this information“.

If Twitter implemented meta descriptions better tailored to the users profile page to increase index relevancy this would not only have a positive impact for “Personal Brands”, but also in Twitter’s Organic Search Optimization.

Needless to say, I didnt send that Tweet which sparked my original Google Search for Dan’s username. I figure he’ll appreciate this blog post more now! Great Mashable post Dan!

I now wonder how long it will take for this post to show up when performing my original Google Search for “Dan Schawbel twitter“!

The following is a food for thought moment, brought to you by @SIGEPJEDI. Call it a connection of the present and future to that of our historic past. This is specifically for all you old media types out there who have yet to connect the dots. Today I wont be connecting any of those dots for you, just sharing what goes on in my brain.

Above is an image of The Gutenberg Bible printed by Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany in 1455. Gutenberg’s true achievement was not The Bible, but proving the process of printing actually produced books.

The production of The Gutenberg Bible marked the beginning of mass production of books in the West, and has iconic status as the start of the “Age of the Printed Book”. The first printing press and movable types were used in creating copies of the book.

The printing press turned out to be a great success though suprisingly NOT because people wanted to read. In fact, in 1455 NOBODY COULD READ! In the 1450’s the catholic church needed money so they printed indulgences, which were forgiveness’s. They printed millions of these pieces of paper, selling them to sinners in every town and village. Washing away sins and driving great demand for printing presses, and books (or printed paper really).

553 Years Later.

Fast forward to present day, 553 years later, to the year 2008. The printing press is still very much alive, though some may argue its fading existance, and we all have a few books around. As the digital world begins to replace processes over 500 years old, it is interesting to ponder the potential key to social media’s acceptance.

Currency.

Today, as I see it, the currency of Social Media is the wealth of knowledge right at our digital fingertips. With an entire new set of digital ‘printing presses’ being used to spread messages far and wide. The focus may always be on money, but hopefully after all this time we can focus more on the wealth of knowledge than revenue generation. As companies like Twitter hunt for a moneymaker I propose they awaken to a realization of the wealth already flowing through their system.

Last night, like many others, I stumbled upon the HastTag #journchat during my evening stay at the Twitterinn.  The first thing that was clear among all these common Tweets was they were all motioning you over to TweetGrid or something similar. A viral ploy perhaps, But an obvious need to help filter and keep up with the flow of these messages tagged with #journchat.

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They’re like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol. You commonly find a rush of these tags for breaking news, events, or even conventions which people are attending.

The #journchat hashTag was created specifically for PR and Journalism professionals in, what appears to be, an effort of having a virtual conference or seminar of sorts.

Another thing was quite certain after looking at the Tweet Stream for the HashTag, many were confused!

At any rate, the concept is intriguing. However, is using a HashTag to conduct a ‘chat’ or virtual seminar really the best way to approach this? I think it just might be!

Many conferences these days are now live streaming their events to the interwebs with sites and services like UStream. You’ll see these chat streams QUICKLY fill up with people ‘virtually’ attending and looking to connect with others interested in the event. The #journchat concept is very closely related to this, just without the physical event happening.

But just like any Marketing/PR event, you start to draw a lot of riff-raff and the message gets distorted. It may be too early call this one, but I am seeing what appears to be people just looking to gain followers.

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?

The following three screen shots from my iPhone tonight show the simple 3 step process. You’re still challenged with the Wifi Hotspot login, but this time you REALLY DONT need an account. Just enter in your AT&T phone number, click submit. You’re then displayed a screen stating a free text message is about to be sent to your phone.

Stuck in traffic this morning, listening to Pandora on my iPhone, I reflected on my reaching out to Justin @Muxtape with his recent online message regarding the service shutdown by the RIAA. Ive always been a forward thinker, so logically I went straight to the potential key in this well debated and controversial issue on copyrighted infringement: Physical vs Stream.

Think about it, What drives music piracy and terrifies the mighty Titans of Hollywood’s entertainment industry?

Did you answer physical files or products? No, Why not?….

Widespread copyright infringement, or piracy, is about the ease of creating and sharing mp3’s. Consumer’s need mp3’s to enjoy his/her digital device (ie iPhone/iPod/Zune/ect). Online music retailers fuel the need as both businesses and Major record companies alike try to control the use of files. This includes authorized services such as eMusic, Rhapsody, Amazon.com, and Napster.

If the Recording Industry wants to regain its footing then, in my opinion, it needs to start thinking ahead and embracing companies like Pandora and Muxtape.  Mp3’s are fading from the forefront characteristic of the Internet as cloud computing begins to shift our everyday lives.

I’ll give you an example, I own a 16GB iPhone which contains ZERO mp3 files. Why do I need mp3’s when I can stream them from the internet via services such as Pandora and Last.fm? Sure you can toss reasons as to why having the digital files is better than streaming, but at the end of the day why cant streaming be better than digital files?

If the Recording Industry, and RIAA, adopted cloud music services today would this put them in a better position tomorrow? Yes! - Case in point, Napster.

If the Recording Industry positioned itself properly could those feeding the consumer physical music addition (ie: mp3s & digital devices) be shut down? Why not!

Its time the Recording Industry & RIAA got off their asses and flipped the script. Take the power back. They need to remove themselves from a combative stance and start focusing resources on developing the new. If the physical dependency can be removed, shifting to streaming content, the who needs mp3’s or even cd’s?  Not me!

This message was brought to you by: My morning drive to work.

More information:

• The Napster Controversy (start to finish)
• DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT
  
• Digital Rights Management (DRM)
• History of Mp3’s Wikipedia
  
• How To: Live the Cloud Life by Paul Stamatious
• Cloud Computing Wikipedia

The sites goal is to “integrate your social services and make sure you can share your online identities in real life.” So far, the site/service has managed to receive a prompt back lash due to their immediately trust abuse! Newly obtained members began sending the above twitter status update upon adding their twitter profile as a ’service’ or ‘identity’ to the site.

Performing another quick Summize search turns up some angry Tweeple, and rightfully so:

As predicted, they promptly responded to the issue with a Blog Post simply titled ‘Auto Tweet’:

The auto tweet function was something we implemented to test Twitter service integration. A lot of people liked to share their E usage over Twitter, but we decided to take it out after complaints. It might return as an option. Post your feature requests, feedback and rants to the Feedback pane in E or use Get Satisfaction!

“…implemented to test Twitter service integration” - Really? How professional of you.

At the end of the day I think this is an excellent example to those attempting to leverage site and service API’s as integral components to 3rd party applications. More over, don’t be stupid.

Ironicly, this also touches on my blog post from yesterday, Social Media Reach and The Sphere of Influence, as the clear goal in this exploit was to gain members via each users ‘Social Media Reach’ as they added the service and caused a ripple effect through their followers. As we have learned, this is an example of Reach With Evil Intention!

Upon further review and testing the service I discovered what I feel is a fatal flaw: Your ‘e-ID’ is not a unique personal ID but a random numerical ‘code’ you must hand out per contact trade. It would be much more friendly to have a personal ‘e-ID’ assigned value/code/id for each ‘e’ user. This will enable users to ’share’ their e-ID much like you would share, say, your ICQ number. You can easily memorize an ID and just hand it out.

I posted a GetSatisfaction inquiry on this: