14 DAY TRIAL // Despite a crowded market for URL shorteners, the “war” was pretty much over before it started, at least with the way things stand now. By being the default URL shortener on Twitter, Bit.ly enjoys a solid lead over any other competing service with more than 70 percent market share.
Still, this isn't stopping it from going forward, the service isn't making any money after all, and today it's adding a new, even shorter, option with J.mp. The new URL saves Twitter users two characters and is otherwise an exact replica of the regular Bit.ly service with all the bells and whistles.
“While the bit.ly domain is almost as short as it gets, for some people, every character counts. With that in mind, today we’re announcing j.mp, powered by the bit.ly platform,” Bit.ly announced on the site's blog.
“j.mp has the same short URLs, metrics, history, user accounts (you’ll have to login again, but your bit.ly accounts will carry over), and customization you’ve come to enjoy on bit.ly, all on a short, memorable domain. In fact, any bit.ly URL also works as a j.mp URL..”
There isn't that much to tell about the new URL shortener because there isn't actually anything new about it except the name. And that's a good thing as, while Bit.ly's dominance may be in no small part due to the Twitter integration, it still is one of the best URL shorteners out there. Users can hold on to their old Bit.ly accounts to access J.mp and all of the previous information carries over so the switch is mostly painless.
The most interesting part is that, despite the countless numbers of URL shorteners available, J.mp (jump) is probably one of the best and is spot on with what a shortener actually does, “jumps” from one website to another. So, if you want 1.4 percent more space for your own words and a snazzier name, J.mp is may be the tool for you.