DISQUS

kegill · 4 months ago

Guys - at least add a paypal tip jar, so that those of us who prefer your service can donate.

davideldridge · 4 months ago

+1 / me 2 / I agree.

It's easy enough. Please let us take part. (Make mine a vote for Paypal or another that doesn't require an account to use.)

You don't have to be the biggest to be the best. You don't have to be the most supported. Tinyurl had it for a long time, and they don't anymore. There is no guarantee that bit.ly will be around forever in this capacity. Take heart, and keep up the good work.

Guest · 4 months ago

+1

johnl1479 · 4 months ago

I agree.

marceloalmaguer · 4 months ago

I agree

timmy · 4 months ago

Yep. I'd donate to it.

sarahmcmenomy · 4 months ago

That would be nice.

pageman · 4 months ago

+1 paypal tip jar or tipjoy please :)

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

agreeeezzzz

Ambien · 3 months ago

+1 to PP

mike1630 · 4 months ago

I agree - tipjar please :) I know I'd use it. Tr.im is (by far!!) my favorite url shortener site. I'm glad to see you working through all this and keeping Tr.im alive.

Voyagerfan5761 · 4 months ago

PayPal, Google Checkout, tipjoy, whatever. If you put up a button, it'll get donations. I'm positive. :)

Michael_Lang · 4 months ago

Hear hear!

AndrewNoNumbers · 4 months ago

That would only solve the problem halfway. I'm sure people would donate, I would. But I doubt it would be nearly enough to cover the costs.

XDS · 4 months ago

+1

I would donate, but because of the time that tr.im was down I would have to wait atleast the amount of time that the service was taken down to send in a donation. I would also probably use anonymous means of sending in said donation(s).

Which I think is a more than reasonable assessment of the situation.

The service was taken down on the 9th and back up what looks like the 11th

Hence I would wait atleast 48 hours to send in a donation after the mechanism for sending in that donation was made available to me.


All in all I do believe their where infact other motives in mind with this shutdown.

But I must give credit where credit is due. And respect for innovation can only be a good thing.

My thoughts and prayers are STILL with the developers and owners of the service even though they still have bitter
thoughts that go along with them.

To quote a famous historical event.

"~ God speed john glenn"

Kraft · 4 months ago

+1

mr_dilettante · 4 months ago

+1

XDS · 4 months ago

+1

Erik · 3 months ago

A tip jar would be great, and even better with a "recurring donation" option. I'm already donating about $120 per month via Paypal to various worthy projects and websites and whatnot, and I'd love to give tr.im around $5 every month to keep the best shortening service around

weblogsfree · 2 months ago

agreed! :-)

Nick Trew · 4 months ago

Who cares about Twitter - tr.im is useful for so many other things!

The URL itself is also far better than bit.ly, is.gd, etc (seriously, they hardly seem relevant).

quicksite · 4 months ago

I totally agree. In addition to a concept I threw out earlier, there are many many different uses for URL shortening where that name would matter more: try vBulletin sites, for one.... or political blogs for another.

Voyagerfan5761 · 4 months ago

Indeed, I've put tr.im URLs in emails with important links, so I can make sure the links are indeed clicked (if not read). And I definitely like the URL you guys have better. WTF does bit.ly stand for, or is.gd? tr.im clearly tells the purpose of the service, and also hints at another potential application: short links for IM.

AndrewNoNumbers · 4 months ago

If tr.im really goes out completely, I'll be the first one to snipe the URL. =]

Butt-Rash · 4 months ago

Awesome, you're URLs are shorter than bit.ly and THAT's what you have to compete with.

Adrian · 4 months ago

Yep, thanks for the reversal. I'm very pleased to see your superior service will continue. Now if you could only rescue friendfeed from the jaws of Faceborg, my happiness would be complete.

Yaboiaj · 4 months ago

Sadly twitter is fondling the nut sack of bit.ly I'd rather use tr.im. But that is just my personal preference.

forwardsteps · 4 months ago

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You have removed days of unnecessary work for me, and I love that, for sure! :)

I'd be more than happy for a paid service, to ensure continuation and reliability.

Fantastic, I can now get back to work that'll make a difference, rather than needing to dig up my tr.im links.

Thank you again, so much.

Cheers, Thea

George Kao · 4 months ago

I echo the gratitude expressed in this and many other posts!

As a happy tr.im user, I'd be glad to pay for premium service. Make it easy for us to pay and I'm sure you will get quite a few recurring payments.

Scott · 4 months ago

Innovate, innovate, innovate. There's got to be SOME way to innovate tr.im to become a superior choice to other URL shortners.

One idea: make tr.im more like ping.fm as a place to update and manage statuses, photos, locations, etc on not just Twitter, but FaceBook, Brightkite, etc, all in one handy spot. Add the ability to submit link directly to Digg, Reddit, etc, via tr.im (although it would have to be the full link and not just the tr.im version). Take the features of pic.im add them into tr.im directly. For example, ping.fm adds a /p/ in its URLs that contain photos. Do the same from tr.im with tr.im/p/ being a short link for photos, and perhaps /l/ for locations, /m/ for music, etc. Continue to expand on creating powerful API's so that developers can use tr.im's features in their applications. Create or encourage others to create powerful browser extentions for tr.im.

Also create a website where people can track the hottest links, etc, being shared via tr.im. (Give folks who use tr.im the option of whether or not they want their links, photos, etc, listed on this page.)

Once you do, bake tr.im and its features into Nambu and create a superior Twitter client people will pay for. Perhaps create an alliance with other Twitter client developers (such as Tweetie) to feature tr.im as the default URL shortening service.

Good luck. I'm a little bit wary of returning to tr.im given how you suddenly wanted to close it on us last week, but I'll switch back to it for now in order to support you.

teh_juggernaut · 4 months ago

Did I miss something or did Twitter change something in response to all of this? I just tested a tr.im link and Twitter did not switch your tr.im URL to a bit.ly URL as your blog post implied. Twitter gave preference to tinyurl when people did not use other shorteners when they first offered shortening, and now they're using bit.ly.
You may disclaim that this post isn't whining, but it sounds like exactly that. You were late to the URL shortening business and you didn't make the right contacts at Twitter and you got left in the dust. Now you're crying over spilt milk because another company has inked a deal with one of your competitors.
Personally, I'd never thought much about your service until I'd heard it was going under. One character doesn't make all that much difference in my tweets because I'm a good editor and can cut my tweets until they fit.
In order of adoption/preference, I have used tinyurl, bit.ly, and Su.pr. I work for a very internet savvy company and url shortening plays a big part of my job and I've never considered switching to tr.im. Perhaps you should work on your user exposure and marketing instead of whining about how you weren't savvy enough to secure a deal with the service that you rely on.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

Approve.

Scott · 4 months ago

P.S. Check out a feature UnHub.com has where URLs shortened through them contain a "profile bar" that shows show originally created/shared the link and has links back to that person's different web profiles. Make this an OPTIONAL feature in tr.im.

Voyagerfan5761 · 4 months ago

In order to support all those extra services, there would be an increase in load and bandwidth usage, and that would mean more money being thrown at keeping the site up. Probably not what Nambu have in mind.

That said, it would be awesome to have more external tools integrate tr.im. HootSuite is probably a lost cause (they built their own service, ow.ly. bah.), but CoTweet and iTweet.net and a hundred others just use Twitter's default because it's Twitter's default. With some outreach, you guys can totally make people realize how useful and simple your service really is.

dave · 4 months ago

Good for you. I think that was the right take-away. Maybe you can help us build the loosely-coupled distributed 140-character network based on http://rsscloud.org/ -- we won't need a URL-shortener, but we do need hot coders and people who are schooled in the hard knocks of Silicon Valley as you now are. :-)

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

I am more than willing to consider getting involved in some way. However, not sure I would consider myself a a "hot coder" by any means.

JL · 4 months ago

Re-focus your integration efforts.
Go to Twitter client developers (tweetdeck, tweetie, etc etc etc) and work with them in order to get THEM to interface with you (so whenever the client shortens a URL with tr.im, it's added to our tr.im account right away)

Maybe working with 3rd party developers instead of twitter itself may be the answer

kegill · 4 months ago

Eric, this is a good suggestion.

XDS · 4 months ago

I agree , they should have to interface with YOU, not the otherway around.

Show them who's boss , seriously.

lfatzinger · 4 months ago

I'd donate! Set it up!!!

I use tr.im for so much more than just Twitter. Please, keep this service alive!!!

RajRao · 4 months ago

You and "" are my favorites. And how can twitter not like you for having a letter less than bit.ly?

A couple of guys who joined fb from msft had this to say abt twitter - twitter is run by a bunch of nerds who really have no strategy or business vision.

If I was funding twitter, I'd be scared.

Name · 4 months ago

I don't think I'll be back. I didn't like being spurned on a no-export option and the sudden nature of the shutdown. As a user, I was never asked if I'd pay and resented being told that 'users won't pay'. Sorry, the service was great, but that whole stunt just freaked me out too much to bring back my trust.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

This is a fair reaction for sure. It was not my intent to shake your faith in tr.im. It was a one-time event, and will not reoccur in any way.

kawika · 4 months ago

Eric, sometimes your biggest fans can be your most vocal critics. As someone who's admired and used your service — and thinks your domain name connotes its potential perfectly — I was disappointed to learn when tr.im went offline. I was more disappointed, however, in the haste and tone of your announcement. Haste, in that there was no warning to users. Tone, in that your "us versus Twitter" laments ignored, again, your users. From the comments on your blog alone there seems to be a collective desire to make this work. Some interesting ideas and intriguing entreaties from the open-source community are appearing, but they value transparency. Good luck!

CharityHisle · 4 months ago

Oh, please let us, your customers, know if you'd like businesses to set up paid accounts. A small monthly bill ($4.99) or a one time fee ($25.00) would be worth it; especially if you enhance the service in some way for paid accounts (exporting data, date range selection). There are ways to make this profitable, you just have to offer premium options for those who pay.

Good luck, and again, Thank You!

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

Nope. They're not doing it that way, I'm pretty sure they said so.

Foliovision · 4 months ago

Hello Eric,


This is great news, but I'd like to see a pay plan and a firm commitment over years to your paid users.

Be the elite URL shortener.

Stats are for pay. Short URLs are for play.

bradybone · 4 months ago

I was deeply disappointed by the news this week. I tweeted about it and had a difficult time to find a worthy replacement - to no avail.

My answer to this latest news? It's too late.

On-again, off-again is more than a chink in the armor of trust you created. Who's to know if this will happen again - next week or next year? How can I trust using your service again?

Instead of coming to your users and laying out your feelings about the situation, surveying the replies and then announcing your decision. You simply made a decision - as is your right - then you listened to pleas and complaints and decided not to end things.

You did not consider your customers first. Yet when they implore you to continue, despite all your reasons not to, they suddenly become the reason to keep moving.

"We simply did not expect the response to Sunday’s announcement that we received," is becoming a tired response to the question, "why didn't we ask our loyal customers first?"

Until you give me a solid reason to come back, I bid you good luck.

- Bone

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

Again, as above, a fair reaction. I think you use the term "customers" pretty loosely here, however. If we started charging we would lose 99% of the users we have, losing more value than we would gain by generating some nominal revenue.

bradybone · 4 months ago

Customer/User. Yes, I happened to not be consistent in my word choice through my post, but they are one in the same; your users are your customers. To think otherwise is insulting.

That and stating that you would lose 99% of your customers in the choice to begin charging is also insulting. This is a continuation of the mentality you illustrated in how you handled this whole thing. How do you know you would lose all your users? Did you ask if your USERS would mind paying to defray costs? No. You decided to shut down because there was no money to keep the service alive. Again this is your right. But obviously you handled it wrong.

This enormous loss (99% is being overly dramatic especially without actually knowing) you speak of is ironically insulting to the product you created. To say so many would leave if they had to pay - without regard too how much they would have to pay - says that you have built nothing of value beyond free.

What you provided was a premium service. The 'free' was a trial period to make it valuable and demonstrate that value. Stats have value. Anyone can get a php code to roll their own url shortener.

There are many stories in business where the underdog came from behind and became the market leader. So don't say that twitter/bit.ly was stacked against you in the "URL Shortening Business". That is absurd. Build a superior product, demonstrate its value, build a following and go from there.

There are also many stories of companies doing the same thing you did this week. Acting without asking the most important people in your company - your users. Kraft is one: http://brainsonfire.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/...
It's not that Kraft started charging for their magazine, it's that they did not take the time to consult their most loyal customers.

In closing, I can't emphasize enough that just simply saying, "It was a one-time event, and will not reoccur in any way," after originally stating there was no reason to continue [no money] and with no explanation for how this could be and no plan to at least provide proof of its perpetuity does not engender the highest level of trust.

Give me a strong reason to believe it - payment with guarantee of service through payment, a way to export the url data, something - and I will.

I can't tell you how to run your company but I hope that you have learned something from this. USERS/CUSTOMERS are all that you have. Treat them like you know they are that important.

- Bone

XDS · 4 months ago

Eric, A very simple solution to that would be to charge based on allotment of shortened links and audit by IP address.

Then have free accounts allowing users current links they have already created to remain free and give everyone an allotment of between 25-500 links per year.

If you want more pie you have to pay for it.

EDIT:

Like many others have said as well not only should their be a "tip jar".

I would also allow users to buy lifetime certificates.

djbrandao · 4 months ago

So, the neverending question. Nambu. Are you going to continue updating the software - or open source it - or do we have to start re-thinking our twitter client for mac? Are you guys not sayin a word on Nambu just because it has tr.im built in, and if you say tr.im is not shutting down, but Nambu is, many people will stop using tr.im naturally, just because it's not embed into their titter client?

Second: Another way to keep people using tr.im despite of nambu, is upgarding a SIMPLE Firefox addon, that is defunct since Firefox upgraded to 3.5 and your addon didn't. Not a great way to pay respect to your fans (see, I,m not using the word customers, as in the mac world most things work on a fan basis, and that should be respected, form both sides, or the mutual confidence is over).

Fred Kauber · 4 months ago

You guys are superheroes for reversing your decision; it's in your best interest and that of your users. Well done and add my voice to those who would be willing to donate via Paypal, etc. as a token of appreciation for what you've accomplished with tr.im.

Attila · 4 months ago

Apart from the PayPal tip jar, you guys could add an option to export a list of all trimmed URL's in our account, maybe even with stats - just in case you decide to close the service, we'd still know all our URL's and could re-post them in let's say a blog post.

analogue · 4 months ago

Stop whining and just improve =)

daphnemaia · 4 months ago

rule #1 of running any business: Don't whine and bitch about other people "having connections with so-and-so" or getting more business.

rule #2 of running any business: If u're not getting as much business, there must be something wrong with u. Fix it.

jtth · 4 months ago

Tr.im is great. I used it embedded in both my desktop and mobile twitter clients.

You stopped service and didn't even try to give us access to our data. OUR data.

Why would we want to come back to that kind of treatment? Your profit is the statistics. Use those, at least from people who have far more trust in you now. I will wait and see your response to Gruber et al.

garmahis · 4 months ago

just wonder how many users tr.im lost because of its lame joke: Twitterfeed and Tweetmeme dropped support at least.

Halo · 4 months ago

I was using twitterfeed with tr.im and switched to another provider when they announced the shutdown and now can't switch back :-( Hope twitterfeed add them back soon.

Kraft · 4 months ago

Did the same exact thing.

chrisodonnell · 4 months ago

I don't care, I'll never use tr.im again. And how the fuck would you monetize URL shortening?

Voyagerfan5761 · 4 months ago

I'm so happy to see this post! Really, I am. As I've said here and there, in bits and pieces, I don't like most of the other services available. Even though I finally created a bit.ly account yesterday (just in case), I haven't used it.

Like a lot of people, I shorten URLs *before* putting them in a tweet. I began using tr.im long before Twitter used bit.ly as the default, when TinyURL was really all that anyone had heard of and I was dissatisfied with the lack of information on my shortened URLs. I briefly used is.gd, but despite the shorter URLs I was still dissatisfied because once I shortened a URL, my involvement in its creation was lost to the ether.

Then I found tr.im, and I rejoiced. It was something like a site I'd used a couple times in the past - SnipURL (on seeing it used in PC Annoyances: Second Edition by PC World's former editor, Steve Bass) - but it offered much more data and (I thought) a much better interface.

So yes, a tip jar would be a very good step. PayPal, Google Checkout, tipjoy - whatever you can think of - add the button and you will get money. It (almost) never fails, especially for something as great as tr.im.

Other than that point (which I just wanted to reiterate), most of the other ideas in this thread are awesome, and I would seriously consider them.

And one more thing: Please no more scares like the one we just had. I was a little depressed all day yesterday because of your announcement. But I'm glad you're back!

playerx · 4 months ago

Just to address #1.
Here is a tweet, where I trim'd a URL, and it's even longer than the current ID.
Hope you like the name.
http://tr.im/resurrected
Twitter didn't dork my trim'd URL to bit.ly
http://twitter.com/px/status/3253349978

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

It has be a certain length. When I said "title" I meant something like http://tr.im/very-long-article-title-example where the total character count is still less than 140 characters.

playerx · 4 months ago

Yea, that magic number of character length is annoying as hell to me. ping.fm does it too occasionally.

There really just needs to be on/off switches for the application of URL shortening in these networks.

Anyways while still a shorter example of the title and URL, the tr.im'd URL length example is understandably a bit extreme.

redwall_hp · 4 months ago

"Twitter has stacked the URL shortening business opportunity overwhelmingly in bit.ly’s favour"

No, they didn't. I *always* shorten my links before writing a tweet. I never "let Twitter do it for me." Most of the links I see on Twitter these days are Ow.ly anyway, not Bit.ly... You have plenty of users, so find a business model. Twitter hasn't stacked the deck against you. You have users, you can make money. Be innovative for crying out loud. Charge for premium accounts for power users or developers. (Add rate limiting to your API, with paid option for more hourly queries; offer more statistics and reporting for paying users, etc.) It's not rocket science.

Twitter isn't preventing you from succeeding, you are.

bassel · 4 months ago

what about expanding tr.im and adding trimming text feature to it not only trimming urls?

my idea about trimming text is like this: some one want to post something that it's longer than 140 chars, but it's not a blog post, then he goes to tr.im ( the brand name is perfect for this by the way ) then he login to his twitter account from tr.im website ( you need twitter api for this ) then he have a box to write a tweet, but wait he have a box that accept up to 600 letters for example, you may make it unlimited then he tweet this 600 letters, and tr.im take the first 130 letters and add a link in the end to the full story which is saved in this case at tr.im server so when some one clicks this link he goes to tr.im/adf32d or tr.im/username/WHATEVER for example and he see the full sotry

and you may expand this in the future so it include other micro-blogging services..

I think this is something new, and if you are php or python powered I can help on that just for fun !!

John Girvin · 4 months ago

http://www.twitlonger.com already does this, and I believe is Python / Google App Engine powered.

bassel · 4 months ago

Thanks for the website, I didn't know it exists, but any way, tr.im is a nice name for that ! they started url trimming even there are other sites that do that, so why not to start text trimming, or even image trimming

SagaciousT · 4 months ago

I have been a devoted TR.IM user since I began blogging & tweeting. However, since your Sunday announcement I have switched to BIT.LY, and am likely to stay with them until I am convinced that TR.IM really is here to stay. You have created yourself another obstacle to overcome, by prematurely announcing closing your doors. How am I supposed to feel confident my shortened links will still work in the months to come, if i return to using TR.IM on a regular basis?

Christopher Stewart · 4 months ago

Awesome ! Now, perhaps, communicate your needs ?

impomatic · 4 months ago

This is fantastic news, thank you. I hope tr.im continues to grow and develops a working revenue model.

Tim · 4 months ago

Twitter was using http://tinyurl.com at the beginning and made the switch to http://bit.ly for reasons that are unknown to me. Keep hope, maybe that will be your turn one day.

Dave · 4 months ago

Good news, now please tell us you are committed to Nambu as a tweet client. Its a great product, easily the best but we really need a new release.

NoahK17 · 4 months ago

Oh good grief. Make up your mind.

Pamir | Reiki Help Blog · 4 months ago

Glad to see this post. Wondering if stats are working on new redirects created. It doesn't look like it's working on old ones...

danielfowler · 4 months ago

Have we still lost all stats previously associated with our account?

dave · 4 months ago

I'm still getting back stats from my API calls for this site: http://dave.40twits.com/

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

No statistics have been affected by the homepage shutdown. Everything else was running during this time. We have had some spam links with millions of clicks that have caused some problems with the click count total, but I am cleaning that up now.

Thomas · 4 months ago

Thanks, tr.im is the best! :)

paulidin · 4 months ago

I am delighted to read this news! And I hope I do not sound like a broken record here (corrupted mp3?), but I feel compelled to ask once more: what will this mean for the future of the nambu desktop client? Now that tr.im is resurrected, will nambu continue to be supported and developed (for the foreseeable future)? Thank you!

Matt Rogowski · 4 months ago

Good!! Twitter should just give a choice of shorteners to choose from, and have an option in the settings page.

23n · 4 months ago

The best url-shortener service is back! Wonderful!!

Sacha QS · 4 months ago

This is really a great news! Thanks for brigning tr.im back! :D

I wonder how are you facing the costly and non viable business problem now?

jakk6 · 4 months ago

Thank you, so much.

I was about to begin work on URL shortening service of my own in Trim's wake, simply because none of your competitors can do what I want them to. I cannot use bit.ly, or is.gd, or tinyurl because none of these can do what trim could, and would rather engineer my own than lower my standards.

Thank you, Trim. Good luck to you all.

march · 4 months ago

thank you, thank you, thank you - this is really good news!

i rely on the great combination of tr.im, pic.im and nambu on my iphone so thank you again for continuing.

wish you the best and hope to see even more innovation from you in the future.

Billy Gray · 4 months ago

> And it is our humble opinion that this type of favoritism will become an issue for all Twitter developers.

Agreed

Otavio Ferreira · 4 months ago

AWESOME! Keep up the good work!

Krystle C. · 4 months ago

Respectfully, could you not at least put more ads on your homepage, or whenever you redirect your bookmarklets back to the original links? I also agree you should at least keep a PayPal donation button on your page.

I like tr.im much better than other shorteners, and I personally would not mind encountering ads myself and feel it would be a small price to pay to keep tr.im around.

tlrobinson · 4 months ago

"URL shortening business" is an oxymoron.

throk · 4 months ago

Woah! I totally missed the initial news, but I'm glad you guys have had a change of heart! Go TR.IM!

David Moreno · 4 months ago

seriously. wtf.

sull · 4 months ago

interesting. good. so next step is to get involved with rssCloud and turn tr.im into a federated micro-messaging service. you can be the platform and an url handler the way twitter should be.

sull.tr.im = my stream.
tr.im/ruf7 = hash short url
tr.im/myslug = keyword short url

build that in response the the response you have received and build it by referring to rssCloud.org.

quicksite · 4 months ago

that sounds interesting.

maze · 4 months ago

what i love about tr.im is the absoltely fabolous iphone app! keep up the good work!

streamfinder · 4 months ago

You guys have bit.ly beat by 1 character! And your name (tr.im) is exactly what you do! That is why I chose you over bit.ly. I am a former tinyurl user. Tweetdeck integrates tr.im nicely. Good luck... maybe twitter will buy you.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

Twitter cannot really start purchasing Twitter-based services such as tr.im. This is why a necessary distance with bit.ly is publicly maintained, while a deal of some sort is obviously in place.

scascot · 4 months ago

Glad to hear this, but without reassurances that Nambu will continue to be developed, I'm looking for a different desktop Twitter client.

If you plan to develop Nambu further, please fix the direct message (sending) functionality - too many times, when sending direct, Nambu crashes. Even when it doesn't crash, there's no indication that the direct was sent successfully, if at all, without going to the "Sent" tab. At a minimum, the status should say "Direct sent successfully" and/or the "Sent" item should pop up an indicator indicating that a new message has been sent.

Another annoyance is that the recipient of a direct isn't shown in the "Sent" item - all that is shown, aside from the message, is me as the sender. This is less than helpful, as I know that I'm the one I sent the direct. What I need to know (or would like to see) is who I sent the direct to.

RV · 4 months ago

this is completely idiotic !
Do you think ,after your little drama from yesterday , people will still use your service ? what is the guarantee that you wont change your mind again ?

Matt Rogowski · 4 months ago

It's quite clear people will still be using the service...

scottwyden · 4 months ago

Glad you are back!

Duffman · 4 months ago

Why not add a small bar with an ad on top of shortlinked pages?
Kind of like the diggbar stays on pages visited through Digg, but then a narrow bar with a context-related ad. Should help making it profitable.

quicksite · 4 months ago

EJW:

Do you want people who have provided you with ideas for re-thinking TR.IM to post publicly here in this blog?

I may as well do so, because otherwise it's lost. And if there is anyone else out there who in interested in followup to this, either with tr.im or independent of tr.im, please contact me: quicksite_AT_gmaildotcom

quicksite · 4 months ago

I'm in San Francisco, a UX Designer/ Info Designer who's developed many a proof of concept prototype service over the years. But I am not a business man.

My view? Think video. Right around the corner.

twitter <---> text blogging

as

xxxxxxx <----> youtube


tr.im is an amazingly perfect brand name for the video equivalent of twitter... And if you step back from your current scenario, and just, for a moment, let all the chit chat of twitter fall away, picture this: the Mobile Phone industry has worked very hard to enable multimedia messaging vs plain text messaging. While it took 3 releases of the iPhone to get video, finally, Windows Mobile has had it for 4 years... 4 years of video from the cell phone, and sending video clip messaging.

So the leap is crystal clear.

If "twitter" is simply "broadcast texting" -- which is really what it is, vs the fancier sounding "micro-blogging"... then the next thing around the competitive corner will be Broadcast Video Messaging -- 5-to-10 second video "trims" (the name is already there), the 140 character "clipped" version of a YouTube video.

As clear as day, while law enforcement cracks down on texting in cars, and therefore twittering in cars, what we will see is video-ing in cars, and bluetooth sending up to that "twitter" site, only it will be called tr.im, not twitter.

Why "TRIM" as the perfect name?

The word "trim" is exactly what the film biz has always referred to motion picture edits that have been made, to tighten up a scene, or the inventory of short shots, usually facial reactions, that were cut, but maybe used for other purposes. In the world of broadcast instant-messaging, it would be the video equivalent of a tweet -- something you'd immediately upload to be broadcast widely (at tr.im), rather than shooting a 5-minute piece for youtube.

You have a remarkable opportiunity to "own" that space. And what will happen in that space?

CONSUMER FEEDBACK to all sorts of brands and advertising. Probably real-time opinions about TV shows like LOST. There will be new ads on TV that are actually games, where they ask people to predict what the next scene will be, etc. There are thousands of ways people will be expressing themselves in 5-10 second videos. And I can bet you a large sum of money that THAT is something you can bank on:

It's the very obvious next step of micro-broadcast-messages, real-time video clips of 5-to-10 seconds. You can also look at it as "broadcast skype", or "mini-U-stream".

Okay, there it is. I'm sure i will live to regret this next part, but: I laugh at twitter. It will become the black & white dot-matrix printer compared to what "microvideo" will be. Someone will be first-to-market and own that space,which will be a huge boon to advertisers and focus groups and political polling of opinions. Instant feedback.

quicksite_AT_gmaildotcom

djbrandao · 4 months ago

Robo.to - video micro bloggin. already exists.

Question still there:
Is Nambu being discontinuated, or not?
All time favourite Mac Twitter client.

Also as for tr.im: update Firefox extension to suit FF 3.5. An easy way to keep tr.im going

quicksite · 4 months ago

Thanks, Juliano. I wasn't aware of robo.to ... I just tried it out, and in its favor it is superfast to get started, and a simplified, get-to-the-point-immediately user interface.

Still, as I see it right now, it is more like a micro version of uStream.tv ... where, they don't care what you do with that video.

I am betting that consumer market research and political polling will become the killer user base for the kind of service I am proposing. It's not always just the tech. It's how it's used :) But thanks very much. I think they've done a great job. Branding? ehhh, not great. if you were to, at this moment, slap the name tr.im on that offering, it would instantly increase its value proposition, at minimum by being more memorable, thus easier to disseminate the existence of it virally.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

I think the options for tr.im to generate some nominal revenue are fairly obvious, and well-known, but I do appreciate everyone's suggestions and thoughts in this area.

Aliane · 4 months ago

I agree !!!

ybizeul · 4 months ago

Ok, that's enough. THAT is bulshit. I'm switching to bit.ly
You guys better think before doing/announcing things

beyondstupid · 4 months ago

Looks like you are weeding out some of the retards (or competitors ;) at least, even if this episode seems a bit amateur. I think your software speaks for itself. I don't think anyone uses it for your perceived business savvy.

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

ybizeul and all other people who would switch to an inferior service for perception of bad decisions over the course of a couple days : please do, less retards using tr.im and other awesome nambu products.

Russ M · 4 months ago

Really dude? Companies with undeniably solid products/services die every day because stupid people run them in stupid ways. I guess I'll give my money back to Goldman Sachs and fire up my Sega Dreamcast, because those were just bad business decisions, right? I sure wouldn't want to be one of those "retards" ruining the awesomeness of smart people like you, right?

wysiwygvontash · 4 months ago

Sure, and less people using it totally justifies time and money invested in the app and the url shortener service, right? I guess those folks could use your business savvy.

CharityHisle · 4 months ago

Yay! I'm so happy. Thank you so much for bringing it back to life!

asdasd · 4 months ago

"URL shortening business"
AHAHHAAHAHHAHAHA I LOL'D!!!!

bassel · 4 months ago

what about www.identi.ca ? did you tried to contact them to make tr.im their default url shortening solution , identi is more open, and more friendly than twitter (in my opinion and "I have both twitter and identi") .. send your ideas to evan http://identi.ca/evan he is the founder and he is all ears :)

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

identi.ca seems to much like a twitter knock off to me..

quicksite · 4 months ago

you mean, as in identi.cal to twitter?

identi.ca fan · 4 months ago

so what? shouldn't we aspire to have a next google?

John stokes · 4 months ago

Identi.ca, like Twitter, is a communications platform. Identi.ca certainly has a lot of the same features as Twitter and Twitter started first - so you can call it a knock off - but Identi.ca also has a lot that Twitter doesn't have: stability, self- branding capability, inter-operability with other communications platforms etc.

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

I think I was a little unfair in what I said, and you make some great points about identi.ca as a service. However, I have zero incentive to get on identi.ca as a real user because nobody I follow on twitter is likely to switch.

quicksite · 4 months ago

bassel, someone suggested that yesterday, and it makes really good sense.

The one thing I can't understand is: how much time did evan & co put into branding? I commented on it here (admittedly, rather harshly), but nonetheless, fyi... http://blog.tr.im/post/159489555/tr-im-to-decem...

bassel · 4 months ago

they may have a problem in choosing the name, but a lot of people are already using it, specially open source/open culture people.

you can go to www.ping.fm and see how many status update / micro-blogging services that exists out there, most of them don't have url shortening solutions..

quicksite · 4 months ago

But I agree with you. It seems like a great match for tr.im to become the open source URL forwarding service for that open standard. I'm a huge user of and believer in open source. Underlying what I was saying before was the abracadabra of "identi.ca" becomes "tr.im" ....

I'm not sure what would be in it for the owners/developers of tr.im , but if there were a way to make it win-win, that would be a killer app, not unlike firefox.

by the way, I read your further ideas below. You have very good ideas, and can see past the current landscape, which is sort of a rare quality these days. kudos.

bassel · 4 months ago

I didn't understand you, what you mean (not unlike firefox) ?
and thanks for your nice words :) it turned out that there is actually something like that, but still tr.im is a great name for trimming text :)

chrome_os · 4 months ago

Publicity stunt, plain and simple.

quicksite · 4 months ago

I doubt it.

It happens everyday.

People really tech savvy, with good usability design as well, throw something against a wall to see if it sticks... or try a "better mousetrap". And lack business enterprise experience to plan & execute toward an end.

I think in this case, it's not a stunt, it's more like the line Robert DeNiro used in "Wag the Dog" : They didn't think it through... both times, at the start of the site, and before they pulled the plug without communicating with users.

Vitor · 4 months ago

Show! from Brazil!

TechGuy · 4 months ago

keep it up

shanmac · 4 months ago

Hu-rah!

davebarnes · 4 months ago

Back to using Nambu. Yea.

rafer · 4 months ago

I hope it works for you economically. If things go sideways, there are both technical and contractual ways to ensure that the links can live on without hijacking. I'm happy to detail whenever.

Good luck.

WebKarnage · 4 months ago

Please let us know the position on Nambu. You have made comments regarding not updating it further, is this still the case? Many of us need to know where we are going with this, I can't find a better choice right now, but it Twitter tweak the API at all, suddenly we'll be stuffed.

lseltzer · 4 months ago

I don't get it. lf tr.im was a guaranteed money-loser a few days ago why does "popular response" change anything?

Ben K · 4 months ago

<quote> Twitter has stacked the URL shortening business opportunity overwhelmingly in bit.ly’s favour.</quote>

As an unbiased general Internet user with no affiliations or affections for Twitter or anyone else I ask: who gives a rat's ass?

"The URL shortening business" -- what a hilarious proposition. I guess that's like the "windshield squeegeeing business".

People need only to step back and think about infrastructure and design in general to realise how thick-skulled it is to depend on any "URL shortening service" to begin with.

-b

louismoynihan · 4 months ago

there are multiple business models possible, poll your best customers, and I mean your best, not your loudest. Pick the top 5 or ten model ideas, repost to the community but after all the feedback discuss only with yout trusted best customers and advisors. Crowd sourcing is all very well, it has it's place but you have to take a leadership role to succeed. Test the top 3, if one doesn't work throw it out and move on. Just becuase bit.ly has an advantage means they also have an achilles heel, find it and look at the possible business models through that lens.

Involve your community in the decisions before you make them, not afterwards.

ideaprison · 4 months ago

tr.im beats the bit.ly for many reasons! better name, smaller name, smaller random chars.

zach12345 · 4 months ago

Hi,

I know of some innovative ways to monetize this service, If you're interested, respond to this comment [the notification goes straight to my phone]. Maybe we can help each other out. Thanks.

LebossTom · 4 months ago

nice to see a good service like yours back to business

theroadkill · 4 months ago

Welcome Back tr.im We're glad you're back and hopefully you'll find a way to stay!

Potential Buyer · 4 months ago

How does one reach you to make an offer?

Dan · 4 months ago

Thank you SO MUCH!

tuntap · 4 months ago

Thank you for bringing it back!

forwardsteps · 4 months ago

"We have no interest in framing tr.im URLs, or adding interstitial advertising to redirects, and some have suggested we do, or others would do with tr.im should they acquire it. We will simply never do that out of respect for the fact that users created tr.im URLs based on this commitment. We do not see that as a viable revenue model as well, as it is not expected or welcomed by the individual visiting a shortened link."

Good. I'm glad about that.

disqusbeta · 4 months ago

thanks a lot, tr.im is no. 1 url shortener i like it and was sad such a good one was just leaving

docusmart · 4 months ago

I was just about to write to you and offer hosting services for free, so happy that you got the situation resolved!

Keep up the good work!

TheMacJedi · 4 months ago

You guys didn't handle the announcement to shutdown Tr.im very well, but that's OK, a lot of these businesses are new and we don't always make the right decisions. I assume the only reason you are keeping it alive is do to capital you received from a Bit.ly competitor or someone who has different plans for Tr.im later.

Either way I'm glad to see that you're staying in business because of all the URL shortening services I preferred yours for many of the same reasons everyone else does. http://tr.im/1urlshortener

Glad to see your back and I will continue to use you.

P.S. If you have to announce closing your doors again please allow those of us that have invested time in using your service to get their information.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

For the record, we have received no capital from any party as part of any decision to re-open to the website and access to the statistics reports. We really did respond to user demand. We will figure it out on this end and not repeat Sunday under any circumstances.

paullefrere · 4 months ago

As you've figured, you need a smarter and more ethical business model than lame interstitial advertising. Are you looking for a Freemium business model? If so, use Open Innovation but don't limit yourself to this blog. Ask via the tr.im site for suggestions from your users for what the premium part should offer, and how it could be made to appeal to people who have budgets (=the most-likely source of sustainable income) such as power users and businesses. They would need value-added services or some other reason to like tr.im, that makes them happy to pay a per-use micro-charge or a small subscription.

grvaughan · 4 months ago

It's the simple things on the internet that turn out to be really powerful. Twitter is an example and so is Tr.im. You guys took URL shortening features forward enough to convince me that there's a LOT of innovation still to come.

I've experimented some with Tr.im and would like to do more, so am glad to learn it will continue. You already have a nice feature set and it will be hard for anyone to come up with a better URL, which is important. Certainly there's considerable value there.

BTW, I never use Twitter's URL shortening, in my experience it's quite erratic and undependable! I always go to Tr.im to shorten URLs for my tweets. It isn't much of a burden since the stats were right there on the page so it was an easy way to keep track of them. The whole Twitter/Bit.ly vs. Tr.im thing is just a mirage, IMHO.

XDS · 4 months ago

Just to quote what I said above.

I would donate, but because of the time that tr.im was down I would have to wait atleast the amount of time that the service was taken down to send in a donation. I would also probably use anonymous means of sending in said donation(s).

Which I think is a more than reasonable assessment of the situation.

The service was taken down on the 9th and back up what looks like the 11th

Hence I would wait atleast 48 hours to send in a donation after the mechanism for sending in that donation was made available to me.


All in all I do believe their where infact other motives in mind with this shutdown.

But I must give credit where credit is due. And respect for innovation can only be a good thing.

My thoughts and prayers are STILL with the developers and owners of the service even though they still have bitter
thoughts that go along with them.

To quote a famous historical event.

"~ God speed john glenn"

choonkeat · 4 months ago

Not hardcoding to "twitter.com" paves way for newer services to come in with compatible api, to provide services like spam filter, proxy, etc. When will Nambu twitter client allow settings for hostname, instead of hard coding to "twitter.com" and be a realtime/microblog client with a backbone?

luefkens · 4 months ago

Happy to see you back! Thanks

NoahK17 · 4 months ago

Um. Can you go back to shutting down your service? That'd be great, less competition for bit.ly and tinyurl (whom I don't see complaining about anything).

tosd1223 · 4 months ago

You really are a bunch of kids, your value has dropped below the zero mark now you twats. Did your stupid lame stunt pay off? are you happy with yourselves.... your transparent and everyone can see your greed. I'll be de-promoting your services on all my blogs alone with many of the community blogs and forums I'm part off. You total wankers.

Emanuel Kluge · 4 months ago

it would be nice, if one could choose in the twitter-settings, which short-url-service should be used. a little more work for twitter, but they could clear up the accusation, they created a bit.ly-monopoly.

sytelus · 4 months ago

so "out of respect" to users you won't show ads but you are ok to kill all the links that they have painfully put everywhere over the years. Right.

Seriously, you guys should stop accepting new URL submissions immediately so no one makes fool out of themselves in next 6 months. Let the old URLs show ads in frame or whatever to keep the current servers going and fund your network cost for as long as possible. That would be your service to community who trusted you.

muaydemir · 4 months ago

If you would ask for some donation, I am sure you can easily get some time to think about a viable business model and strategic planning. I would like to donate.

benjamr · 4 months ago

I use TweetDeck which DOES offer choice of URL shorteners. tr.im is on the selectable list in there.

Wurm Germ An · 4 months ago

Thanks for the "comeback" :) Incredible

Paulo Ribeiro · 4 months ago

Glad to see the tr.im service is back!

jeffgibbard · 4 months ago

Tr.im is the best URL shortening service out there. I get everything you said and it's all valid, but your service is too good to quit?

davidpaulw · 4 months ago

Glad you guys are back up but it still really sucks that you shutdown in the first place.
Here is my take on it: http://bit.ly/hf5pl

Yosef · 4 months ago

nice pr stunt

skykid · 4 months ago

I am glad that you decided not to shut down because I really like tr.im as your url look neat.

cssbit · 4 months ago

welcome back

Davilacs · 4 months ago

Habrán donaciones en PayPal =), gracias por retomar las actividades. tr.im Rlz!.

Name · 4 months ago

it was too a PR stunt. You just didn't know it at the time.

Name · 4 months ago

Seriously? There's no chance in hell that I'll use this service ever again....

I only chose your service because of the "cooler" URL. Bit.ly has the right idea and I can trust that they've got more interest in their users than you do. Their most recent blog post illustrates this with their 301works project.... pointing out that you weren't interested in working with them, your "interest is in selling tr.im."

Good luck.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

bit.ly's "offer" in regards to 301works was little more than a way to inject themselves in the conversation.

Matt · 4 months ago

Why No One Should Trust tr.im (and Nambu in General)

http://mavrev.com/site/story/why_no_one_should_...

dlumerman · 4 months ago

I've been a big fan of tr.im for a while and would just like to throw in my 2c:

. I keep monthly stats offline and switching to a new service means these stats don't have a common basis (robots vs real users) since other services slice and dice differently.

. I am hesitant to use tr.im without some sort of lag time as to when it would go away. (a month warning?) I ran around changing future publish links like mad a few days ago.

. Please consider putting advertising on the stats page. I think if you looked at your stats breakdown your core users are looking at your great statistics. This would defer some of your costs as well as not impact link users.

. While there are many examples of businesses that could not translate to direct pay on the web I think it would be higher than you think. For many of us we used tr.im as part of our business consider a nominal fee to get at stats with the account.

. Focusing on the end user (I'm a usability person) is a competitive edge coveted by few companies. Your elegant service gives you this, don't be so quick to throw it away.

. Lastly I wish you luck whichever way you go.

ak · 4 months ago

what about nambu? still going to be discontinued? please keep us informed. thank you. =)

Florian · 4 months ago

I would love to pay and get some special commitments! tr.im is and will be my favorite url shortener!

Vince · 4 months ago

Great guys; I think it is awesome tr.im stays alive.

Webreaper · 4 months ago

Why the obsession with Twitter?

I've been using TinyURL for about 5 years, and now used tr.im since I found out about it earlier this year. I only opened my twitter account for a bit of a laugh and have posted maybe 3 links (using tr.im). I use url shortners in email Facebook status and other stuff.

So stop obsessing about Twitter. URL shortners (and hence potential monetization) are not limited to the 6m (0.005%) people on Twitter, they're limited to the 1.5bn (http://tr.im/wk5u) internet users.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

Twitter is now the driving force behind URL shorteners. This is just a fact. This is changing with status updates on Facebook becoming more Twitter-like, but Twitter usage is where the vast majority of URL shortening users reside.

peelman · 4 months ago

Great news guys!

The Gnome · 4 months ago

This seems like an eloborate ploy to rant against Twitter and gain PR, no matter how strongly you deny it.

maryspiro · 4 months ago

The paypal idea is a good one.

Josh · 4 months ago

I'm glad to see you guys are not giving up. :) You can still give bitly a run for its money by
trying to win over API developers. If you can get developers to use your service within their apps you
can still get a good chunk of the URL shortening on twitter. Also maybe check out partnering with other services
such as identica. I really like your service over bitly's.

Ahmadism · 4 months ago

I personally have never used Tr.im and have been using Bit.ly after using TinyURL and is.gd. If you would offer the same benefits and partnerships like the they have with BigTweet, I'd be more than happy to give tr.im a try.

Name required · 4 months ago

who gives a shit about Twitter? seriously.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

Millions of users.

XDS · 4 months ago

WTF is a twitter ? Sounds like something sexual and/or pornographic.

Daniel M. Clark · 4 months ago

I'm sorry, but you guys are fools. Seriously - I don't say this to be mean, but it's the honest truth. You really have no idea what you're doing. With every statement you make, you dig yourself deeper, and I can't imagine ANYONE would seriously consider using tr.im after all this.

You haven't changed your tune. You're still saying that Twitter is to blame for your failure - and it *is* a failure. You still can't see that you need to move beyond Twitter into other spaces. This is evident by what you posted as #1 above.

In #2, you say you'd rather close tr.im down than sell it to someone you don't know. Welcome to the real world - you aren't going to know everyone you do business with. If you can't handle it, sell it to someone who can.

Point #3, you say you have no interest in framing or interstitials. Great. You admit you have no interest in making money. There is NO other way to make a URL shortener profitable, unless you collect donations. Good luck with that. You might have a few hundred comments on the site here from "loyal" users, but when it comes down to dollars, you'll be lucky if a handful of them actually put their money where their mouth is.

Lastly, you say this wasn't a public relations stunt. Well, duh. Unless you're completely pea-brained, you must understand that putting your future at risk for a couple days' worth of minor press coverage would be pretty stupid.

You're probably going to lose quite a lot of people when they realize that you're not likely to survive the end of the year (and I'm sure you'll blame Twitter and bit.ly again). How do I know? Because you've lost *me*, and I know I'm not alone. I've used tr.im, and I've been using and promoting Nambu until recently. Now, I'll never use either again because I can't be sure that you won't pack it up next month and go crying to Mommy about how Twitter isn't playing fair.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

Not using tr.im anymore is a perfectly understandable reaction. You might be interested in listening to this interview for some actual perspective on the decisions as they unfolded. http://tr.im/wj1i

Daniel M. Clark · 4 months ago

The real story... from you. We've been hearing from you for several days about this. You can go on as many podcasts as you like and try to justify what's been happening, but don't tell me again that I lack perspective. You chose to base your "business" model around Twitter - a company that itself has no business plan. You refuse to accept that if you are to survive, you must look beyond Twitter, and from what we've read so far, your only plan for making tr.im profitable seems to be crossing your fingers and hoping someone buys you out. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell your "loyal" users what your monetization plan is, if it's not based on frames or advertising. If you've already stated it, I must've missed it, and you can post a link to it.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

The podcast was done in part to help answer all of those questions. If you cant be bothered to listen to it, or dont care, I cant help that. Twitter (currently) defines the URL shortening area. This is a simple fact. I would honestly suggest you simply not use tr.im.

Daniel M. Clark · 4 months ago

I like podcasts; I do one myself. Telling me that I should spend 57 minutes - the length of that podcast - listening when you could very easily put a few paragraphs of text answering some *basic* questions on your website is insulting.

Twitter doesn't define ANYTHING. If you don't wake up to that, there's no hope for tr.im or Nambu. You can suggest whatever you like, I already said I'm not using tr.im anymore. I've now said all I'm going to say about this. I'm not going to waste any more time trying to make someone who is so blind to reality see reason.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

That is simply not accurate. Twitter is indeed defining who gets to succeed and fail in the major enhancements to their private network. They are handing out massive free advertising and maintaining strict controls to the data stream that regulate everyone else to the background, and ensure their margins are not competitive. Making a quote from some book about "innovation" ignores basic realities of the situation.

Daniel M. Clark · 4 months ago

Eric, you have, for the umpteenth time, completely missed my point. You keep defining success as whether or not Twitter chooses tr.im or another service. As long as you think that, you've failed. You need to look past Twitter. Honestly, I don't understand why you can't grasp that very simple premise.

You're choosing to be a "Twitter developer", putting all your eggs in one VERY unprofitable basket. Get over Twitter. There are other uses for URL shorteners.

Now, seriously, if you can't at least acknowledge my statement, if you insist on crying about Twitter's supposed domination over URL shortening services (despite TinyURL's massive success before Twitter even existed), just don't respond at all. Please. I'm not the one ignoring basic realities (though I have no idea what book you think I'm referring to).

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

Nah, you're now just getting ignored because you want nothing but to be 'right' about what you said initially, and your OWN whining (or choice of url shorterners, for that matter) has no bearing on what ends up happening with the service.

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

You can't imagine anyone would seriously consider using tr.im after all this? Are you serious? You're just trying to sound really cool right? Because there are plenty of people who will keep using it.

Man you are a self-important douche.

Name · 4 months ago

I have two ideas
The first is to talk to twitter and tell them what they are may be considered anti competive behavor (think Microsoft search lawsuit)
AND
you may also see if any bigger websites would want to work with you guys (maby facebook? thier becon service looks like it could fit here)

Rob · 4 months ago

Hey guys.
I use andriod as my twitter client and an app called URL Shortener. Added you guys as man default shortening site.

Cheers

rob__d · 4 months ago

Hey guys.
I use andriod as my twitter client and an app called URL Shortener. Added you guys as man default shortening site.

Cheers

ismail yk · 4 months ago

I love tr.im.
Welcome back. Please dont' go again.

paulidin · 4 months ago

I used bit.ly for the timeframe between the shutdown announcement and the resurrection announcement. I concur with the "should ask your users" sentiment, the request for more transparency, and reiterate a request for info on the future of nambu. Unlike some here who seem to be following a zero-tolerance-policy on developers' policy mistakes, I am back to fully and whole-heartedly using tr.im and nambu. Because I LIKE them.

If a donation link pops up, I may use it after a little time has passed and it appears that the products are here to stay for a while. Absolutely, if nambu becomes shareware, I will pay for it.

However, until nambu makes their development future a bit clearer to their users, I will not feel comfortable recommending their products any longer as I have previously done in my twitter feed.

Mind you, I don't expect details on exactly what nambu has in mind, nor precisely why they make their decisions -- but reassuring broad statements like "we will announce a few ideas for monetization in September" or "we plan to release at least two more revisions of nambu before the end of the year" would bring the developers and their product users closer to each other and develop user confidence.

I look forward in hope to new developmens for both tr.im and nambu.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

I will be giving an update about Nambu very soon. I have held off for fear of being accused of trying to capitalize on the tr.im fiasco to hype Nambu.

paulidin · 4 months ago

Terrific! Thank you.

AK · 4 months ago

yes!!!!!! fantastic! thank you!!!

Ben · 4 months ago

I will never use Tr.im again. Just like many others, I have crossed over to bit.ly, yes bit.ly, the URL shortening service you surrenderred to.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

That is totally understandable. They provide an excellent, comparable service.

Richard X. Thripp · 4 months ago

What is this bullshit? What kind of fools do you take us for, anyway? How dare you pull this shit?

First, you make a whiny announcement about how there's no point continuing tr.im with no way to make money and no support from Twitter. Then, you announce that you'll be breaking millions of links at the end of the year by turning off the tr.im servers. Finally, you tell us it was all a joke.

That's what this is, anyway. A joke. An insult to your users. Do you get some sort of sadist thrill out of pulling these stunts? You obviously had no intention of ending tr.im. This was just a publicity stunt. A very bad one at that, because it alienates your users. How can anyone take you seriously again?

Until recently, Twitter favored TinyURL. Why weren't you squawking then? Twitter shows disfavor to you now no more than they did then. GET OVER IT. If you can't make tr.im popular without sponsorship from Twitter, then you don't deserve to succeed. Do you hear Steve Jobs constantly complaining about Microsoft?

You were "overwhelmed" by the response? 300 comments and a handful of emails overwhelmed you? You have a popular service. When you announce that you will be shutting it down and breaking all your links, how can you not expect an overwhelming response?

A service like tr.im should not cost more than $1000 a month to host. If you need money, don't pull this shit. Ask for donations. You would have gotten them. But now, you'll get nothing, because you've proven what rotten people you are.

Eric Woodward · 4 months ago

I guess prudence suggests I ignore this, but it does not really appreciate the competitive landscape as it exists. I appreciate you are upset, think we are dumb, but it is always a little more complicated than that.

Richard X. Thripp · 3 months ago

I'm retracting my comment because it's been nagging on my conscience. I commented it on your newer post but will post it here too:

This is good news. Sorry I was so nasty about your reversal before. Everyone makes mistakes, as I did.

I wrote a blog post called Egregious Failures, where I included the scathing comment I gave you, and cited it as an egregious failure on my part. If you read it, you'll realize I'm a hypocrite, because my URL shortening service Th8.us had a three day outage one month before. My service receives 1/1000 of the visitors that tr.im gets, but on principle my comment was wrong. Unlike my service, your service did not go offline at all. You just made an announcement which made people angry. TinyURL and Twitter have had major outages in the past few months. Your mistake was insignificant in comparison. If I did not read your blog or check your home page when you had the announcement up, I would not even know about it now.

Do you know what Twitter should do? Ditch all URL shorteners and just flag all URLs as 25 characters toward the 140, regardless of length. Problem solved.

Sorry and good luck,
Richard

Eric Woodward · 3 months ago

It is no problem. Most of these negative comments are based on a lack of knowing me or us personally, which if people did they would think a lot differently. People project a lot of crap on to you when you are in the public eye for doing something stupid. I am fine with it, and take all the good comments equally with the bad ones.

The fact is tr.im is a small time service that currently has no chance of making any decent return on the amount of time it takes to keep it running. It is a bad spot. Not growing fast enough to reach any way to make more than $500 a month in revenue, but growing fast enough that it required a lot of work to take it further.

RatherBeBiking · 4 months ago

Richard, here's a personal development tip : none of your tips or photos could ever possibly be as useful as tr.im was and is as a service. sorry dude.

Christophe · 4 months ago

Gooooooood! I'm very happy! Congratulations for the decision!
Harpy, very happy! Thanks you for the decision, thanks!

Good luck for after, - Christophe.

Fish · 4 months ago

Foolish move. You wiped out 99% of any good will you had built up and... with patience... could have turned a measurable value (economic or otherwise.) The value dropped instantly with the shut down. I immediately moved to bit.ly. Will not return.

Summer · 4 months ago

I wish I'd known that you guys came back up. As soon as I saw that you were dead, I got a bit.ly account. Sorry.

Tony Eldridge · 4 months ago

You should set up a PayPal donation button to help offset the cost of the service- every dollar can help!

michele smorgon · 4 months ago

I'd like to thank you very much for reinstating this service. I find it an invaluable tool. No other similar service, including bit.ly, offers such a comprehensive analysis of links / posts.
I am more than willing to assist tr.im by way of recommendations, e.g. tweet out
Maybe it would be beneficial to have a formatted text message to tweet
Best of luck
Michele Smorgon (@maxOz)

Lincoln Rolls · 4 months ago

I'm coming back to give you guys a second chance. As for the future of tr.im, why not adopt a "freemium" model? Offer basic URL shortening for free, with a guarantee that all tr.im URLs will redirect for one year. For a small monthly fee, offer premium members lifetime redirects, custom URLs, tracking & analytics, and whatever other cool stuff you can think of. :-)

I'm sure many of us would gladly pay a few dollars a month for a premium service (I would). Also, by recycling the URLs created by free members you could keep tr.im URLs even shorter compared to your competition.

bassel · 4 months ago

a fee for short links?
are really willing to pay for that?

kettlewell · 4 months ago

With all this publicity (some big names put a big shout out) I seriously think this was an intended publicity stunt.

It appears that there were several requests to buy your service (me included) but that you changed your mind on wanting to sell it - for moral reasons it appears

You would have rather shut the service down, then sell it to someone that could make money from it.

It could have been a win/win but now the service will reach a second brickwall when you complain later that you can't afford the bandwidth and development costs.

Let us know when the stunt is over, you get over your moral conundrum and want to really sell the site and make some money.

I'll start the bidding at $1

rightklik · 4 months ago

Thank you for working hard to save this fantastic service.

John · 4 months ago

Brilliant marketing stunt! I learned a lot from you guys. I mean blaming twitter for favoring bit.ly hahaha. Only uncreative folks would bitch like that. Shortened URLs should be disposable to begin so I'm not sure why people were so scared about losing their links. Lol.

spatical · 3 months ago

I clucked the button to tweet some Twitter search results in search.Twitter.com and it actually used a tinyurl shortened link. Looks like they haven't made every link convert to a bit.ly yet.

Samuel Klein · 3 months ago

Fantastic solution! I worried about your shutting down; so glad to see that a couple weeks later all has magically been worked out. Let me know if I can help in any way re: the transitioning to community ownership.

itcrowd · 3 months ago

Hooray! tr.im is back - I've only just seen this good news. Been having to use crappy bit.ly these past few weeks. C'mon Twitter, get behind the best link shortener on the net - that's tr.im to you.

mypointofview · 1 month ago

Thank you. I like trim better than bitly