If you really want to move past everyone and become the premier URL shortener, you HAVE to give us a feature that lets us add Google Analytics UTM_ tags (or other custom tags) to the end of any URLs that you shorten (or even better, URLs from domains we specify). Some services provide this in the manual shortener tool, but to be truly useful it would need to work automatically from things like Nambu and TwitterFeed.
To me the 100% loss of analytics data from shortened URLs is a major disaster in tracking the value of social media. Currently all redirected shortened URLs show up as "Direct" traffic.
Eric Woodward
· 6 months ago
This is a feature that we have slated for development, but to put it in perspective, relatively few users have asked for this. We have other features we are working on that we have prioritized. Such is the reality of running a series of services that people like, and want to see it add what *they* want asap.
You can of course add them yourself when you shorten your URLs via the website forms, or even in the API. We simply shorten whatever URL we are given, as long as it is valid. What you *seem* to want is the ability to have this attached to all the URLs you shorten automatically.
To do exactly what you have specified here, we have to add additional processing on the redirection request, which is something we hesitate to do. We also maintain a map of URL shares to match the same URL shared by multiple users. If we/you customize each shortening the value of this map will start to degrade, not just for us, but for all services processing shared Twitter links. I know many URL shorteners don't give a hoot about this, but we do.
TheRealTerry
· 6 months ago
All that is understandable. Just some food for thought: As a marketing professional, now that I know my analytics will report everything obtained from a URL shortener as "direct" traffic it's 100% not a feasible option. The benefits of having a short URL do not outweigh the benefits of knowing where my traffic is coming from and which sources provide value over others. Not by a long shot.
And of course, as always the rules of you can't please everyone and maybe it's not right for you apply, but when it comes down to it, anyone who cares about understanding their traffic falls into the category of this being a major issue (and I think we could agree that is and should be pretty much everyone.)
I know what MY solution is going to be, I'll figure out how to use Yahoo pipes or make a special custom feed just for each service that is going to use a shortener, or just improve my mod rewrites to make my URLs more economic and eliminate the need for a shortener all together. From an average user's standpoint that's a high cost of entry to use a URL shortener without it damaging your analytics data.
Thanks for the services and products you provide! I love tr.im and Nambu is the best desktop app for Twitter like services. I only bring up the above because I can promise you, it's going to become a major roadblock once all the SEO types finally figure out why their direct traffic numbers started to spike, and they consult for a lot of site owners out there. Look at the blow back from the Digg shortener framing content as evidence of what's to come. The winner of the URL shortener field (for the immediate future at least) is going to be the one that could provide the service without this analytics issue. I'd rather that be you guys, for what it's worth.
Eric Woodward
· 6 months ago
Can you confirm that what you want is the ability to add custom parameters to each redirection request? And that entering them manually via the website is not really feasible (which I assume it is not)? As I said it is on our list.
In our opinion, however, the "winner" of URL shortening for the moment is whoever Twitter says it is. There is a small swell forming around being able to shorten with your own domain name, but there are issues with implementing this. It is not as simple as just pointing your domain name at tr.im.
TheRealTerry
· 6 months ago
Actually, the ideal thing is not to have it for each request, but to have a head match that will then append a string based on that criteria. If I shorten URLs from outside sites, I wouldn't care, but if I shorten a URL back to my own site I do. So I would envision an account settings area where I can enter sets of criteria containing two things: domain (or string) to match, and string to append. That would make it so that the process were automatic, whether I shortened via Nambu, or TwitterFeed.
I personally don't know if I like shortening with your own domain name, the DNS set up would be complicated enough that you could just as quickly make a simplified script and interface to just append your .htaccess file with redirects. Even a database lookup type solution would be easier to me than coping with the headaches of nameservers, but that's just me! Besides, unless you have a 5 character domain TLD included, you defeat the purpose of shortened URLs!
Twitter is definitely your 800 pound Gorilla right now, but Facebook is something to think about to. I abhor their framing method they use right now, and if there was an app to et me use tr.im instead for link posts, I would install it in a second. I hate the idea of my page views padding their own stats. Their jumps in Alexa ranking at the same time they implemented this is no coincidence and it's shady at best when you consider that ad rates get set partially off that rating.
Budd
· 6 months ago
A suggestion for the OSX widget: After installing, it currently reads "You to not yet…" It should read "You do not yet…"
archer
· 6 months ago
have installed the ff extension and it doesn't work. any fix in the works?
aissa
· 6 months ago
slt
dineshmalshe
· 5 months ago
I can write & Blog Net Social Working ....
felipe_deleon
· 5 months ago
How long should it take for a URL I twitted through TweetDeck take before it shows up in my URLs (I am using an account which has been verified to claim tweets. It has been about half an hour and I am not seeing mine...
wayneNtampa
· 5 months ago
Any plans to update the Firefox extension? This is a very useful tool that was 'broken' with the 3.5 update.
B_Godot
· 5 months ago
Ditto, the FireFox extension added great utility. I don't know if this is a FF issue or if tr.im can fix it. Otherwise, very useful & thanks.
All Comments
To me the 100% loss of analytics data from shortened URLs is a major disaster in tracking the value of social media. Currently all redirected shortened URLs show up as "Direct" traffic.
You can of course add them yourself when you shorten your URLs via the website forms, or even in the API. We simply shorten whatever URL we are given, as long as it is valid. What you *seem* to want is the ability to have this attached to all the URLs you shorten automatically.
To do exactly what you have specified here, we have to add additional processing on the redirection request, which is something we hesitate to do. We also maintain a map of URL shares to match the same URL shared by multiple users. If we/you customize each shortening the value of this map will start to degrade, not just for us, but for all services processing shared Twitter links. I know many URL shorteners don't give a hoot about this, but we do.
And of course, as always the rules of you can't please everyone and maybe it's not right for you apply, but when it comes down to it, anyone who cares about understanding their traffic falls into the category of this being a major issue (and I think we could agree that is and should be pretty much everyone.)
I know what MY solution is going to be, I'll figure out how to use Yahoo pipes or make a special custom feed just for each service that is going to use a shortener, or just improve my mod rewrites to make my URLs more economic and eliminate the need for a shortener all together. From an average user's standpoint that's a high cost of entry to use a URL shortener without it damaging your analytics data.
Thanks for the services and products you provide! I love tr.im and Nambu is the best desktop app for Twitter like services. I only bring up the above because I can promise you, it's going to become a major roadblock once all the SEO types finally figure out why their direct traffic numbers started to spike, and they consult for a lot of site owners out there. Look at the blow back from the Digg shortener framing content as evidence of what's to come. The winner of the URL shortener field (for the immediate future at least) is going to be the one that could provide the service without this analytics issue. I'd rather that be you guys, for what it's worth.
In our opinion, however, the "winner" of URL shortening for the moment is whoever Twitter says it is. There is a small swell forming around being able to shorten with your own domain name, but there are issues with implementing this. It is not as simple as just pointing your domain name at tr.im.
I personally don't know if I like shortening with your own domain name, the DNS set up would be complicated enough that you could just as quickly make a simplified script and interface to just append your .htaccess file with redirects. Even a database lookup type solution would be easier to me than coping with the headaches of nameservers, but that's just me! Besides, unless you have a 5 character domain TLD included, you defeat the purpose of shortened URLs!
Twitter is definitely your 800 pound Gorilla right now, but Facebook is something to think about to. I abhor their framing method they use right now, and if there was an app to et me use tr.im instead for link posts, I would install it in a second. I hate the idea of my page views padding their own stats. Their jumps in Alexa ranking at the same time they implemented this is no coincidence and it's shady at best when you consider that ad rates get set partially off that rating.
or Doing Any Marketing Whatsoever!
http://www.aweber.com/?289996
see again
any plan to update FF plugin for version 3.5?
thx.
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