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Why Twitter's T.co Is a Game Changer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the everyone-wants-a-piece-of-that dept.

macslocum writes "If Twitter is so inclined, the company could turn the new t.co shortening service into a powerful analytics tool that solves the marketing and tracking issues of off-site engagement."

7 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just what we need by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    On the plus side, if all marketers are using the same domain for tracking URLs, then it only takes one line in /etc/hosts to block them all.

    And am I the only one who just does not click on any 'shortened' URL because you never know what it's going to take you to? OK, so www.fluffybunnies.com could still take me to a goatse site, but it's far less likely to do so.

  2. Re:*shrug* by 0123456 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fun part about this article is that the text and comments appear to show that marketers realise we hate them but the continue to do these things anyway.

    I believe we have a name for people like that?

  3. Twitter: now with spying! by metrometro · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Twitter, long described as a "semi-open" platform, whatever that means, will now proceed to become a case study in the difference between actually open (user-owned, peer-to-peer) and not at all open (corporate owned, centralized) in modes of communication.

  4. Re:*shrug* by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I never click on a shortened link. You never know when it migh be a redirect to goatse.cx or worse.

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  5. Re:Just what we need by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And am I the only one who just does not click on any 'shortened' URL

    You aren't the only one. I won't click on them either. I probably wouldn't go to your fluffybunnies url either and tend to stick to just the few I have 'whitelisted' in my brain. A certain citrus celebration themed URL comes to mind when discussing URLs that sound safe on paper...

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  6. Attach the stupid URL as metadata by MBCook · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If Twitter would just let you attach a URL to each tweet as metadata (like the user name or time it was sent), no one would need any of these stupid URL shortening services. Think! URLs that would work next year when 3 of those services disappear.

    I know Twitter was designed with the limitations of SMS in mind, but most recent phones seem to support longer multi-part SMS messages, and most people seem to use a twitter client on their phone now instead of the SMS gateway.

    Fix the root problem, don't apply another band-aid. By making all the links go through Twitter as a passthrough, they could get this marketing data they want.

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  7. Re:*shrug* by hierophanta · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Scientology? that's hilarious. see my previous comment - safe clicking enabled by no-script and a firewall that works