14 DAY TRIAL // The URL shortener fad has gone away, which is actually good news for any serious URL shortener, now they can get down to business and provide the service they're meant to without all of the hype. Bit.ly, still the largest shortener out there, is introducing a brand new mobile site for all those 'smart' device owners.
The new mobile site enables users to do pretty much what the regular one does, but it also comes with a few tricks and features for touch devices in particular.
"We are extremely stoked to share with you today [the brand new cross-platform bitly mobile site]. Just pick up your favorite (smart)phone or tablet, navigate over to bit.ly, j.mp or bitly.com, and behold the newness," Bit.ly announced.
"What can you do on the bitly mobile site? Broadly speaking, you can shorten, share and track links just as you can with the full bitly web experience. We’ve also cooked in some nifty mobile-specific features," it explained.
The new mobile site is packed with small tweaks and smart features that make a lot of sense for the devices it's aimed at. For example, you can actually use it even if you don't have an internet connection. The link you're trying to shorten will be saved and processed as soon as you have connectivity.
In fact, as many as 100 recent links will be cached locally so users can review their history and find links they've already shortened without an internet connection.
The contents of any link you shorten can be previewed, even videos on popular sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Considering that plenty of devices don't have Flash built-in, it's a very nice feature.
Users will also be able to view analytics data for their links, made beautiful with the help of HTML5. Of course, the QR code for any link is also readily available.
