If you’re a blogger with WordPress.com, you’ll be happy to learn that you now have the capability to shorten your URL’s within WordPress.com with the new WP.me service. You can see an example of a WP.me link below.
Original
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/shorten/
Shortend Version
http://wp.me/sf2B5-shorten
Will you use the new WP.me URL shortener? Tell us.
What’s so special about WP.me, besides the link being 70% shorter? Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, updated the WordPress blog where he sheds some light on some key features:
WP.me is the only two-letter .me domain in the world.- Every blog and post on WordPress.com has a WP.me URL now.
- These are all exposed in the <head> using rel=shortlink.
- It doesn’t work for any URL in the world, just WP.com-hosted ones.
- The links are permanent, they will work as long as WordPress.com is around.
- WP.me is spam-free, because we are constantly monitoring and removing spam from WP.com.
Matt goes on to say:
“I think a few of these points are worth following up on. While URL shorteners have had some incredible usage tied to the growth (and constraints) of Twitter, I question their sustainability as a business. This point was underscored a few days ago when a popular one, tr.im, announced they were going to shut down at the end of the year.
Their story had a happy ending in that someone came in and saved them, but it was hard not to think of what would have happened if all their links stopped redirecting one day: part of the web would go dark. I also worry that because shorteners are essentially open proxies of HTTP they’ll be exploited by spammers and malware distributors to the point where businesses, anti-phishing, and anti-virus services will be forced to block them.”
With popular micro-blogging site Twitter gaining so much popularity this year, will people still find time for WordPress? It’s unclear at this point, but by the looks of things, some people are already using WP.me.
Do you think WordPress has lost some bloggers to Twitter? Let us know what you think.
