Twitter releases automatic link-shortening feature
Twitter has built in a new link-shortening feature to its micro-blogging service, bypassing the need for shortening sites such as TinyURL and Bitly.
Spokesperson Carolyn Penner wrote on Twitter’s blog earlier this week: “We've been working on a bunch of features to make Twitter easier to use. Today, we're releasing something that many of you have been asking for – automatic link-shortening on Twitter.com”
The link-shortening feature will, when rolled out fully, shorten links of any length down to 19 characters.
“Sharing links on Twitter.com is now simple and instant,” Penner continued. “Plus, since we show a shortened version of the original link, people will know which site the link points to. This service also increases security. If users click links that are reported as malicious, we direct them to a page that warns them.”
Unlike some third-party link-shortening services however, Twitter has no plans at present to provide analytics data on shortened links.
Link-shortening is the latest example of Twitter building into its service features popularised elsewhere, with Twitter buying TweetDeck and offering built-in photo sharing.