It’s too bad really, Tr.Im was growing quite quickly. Whatever the reason, popular URL shortener Tr.Im is being shut down, and at the moment will not shorten another URL ever again. Not that the market lacks other URL shortening options, quite the contrary. Everyone and their dog has an URL shortener, mine can be found here.
The Tr.Im news can be read here, it came via a sad company blog post. The Nambu team was more than dead on when they stated that in fact, Bit.Ly has been given the green light by Twitter to shorten for the foreseeable future. When your competitor has funding, the market lead, size, and every other advantage, you have to know when to throw in the towel. Still, with traffic like this, it must have been a hard let the project go.
But, traffic is not cheap, most especially when there are so many links to maintain and shunt people through. URL shortening can be a thankless position. The final piece of the puzzle came when Bit.Ly offered to take over the backend of Tr.Im to ensure that no older links break. A fine gesture. Carry the helmet of the man you just smote.
Whatever happens in the next few days, one thing is clear: the glory weeks of owning a URL shortener, are over.
