14 DAY TRIAL // The recent news surrounding the Tr.im closure had quite a few worried about the future of their shortened links. While millions of links are shared using this type of services every day there is no guarantee that the links will still work tomorrow or next year. Fortunately, in light of the concerns raised, some URL shortening services are now banding together to provide an independent archive of the links to ensure they survive if services close or go down at some point.
“Leading Internet software companies have joined together to launch an independent URL mapping directory service. The new service will allow all participating short URL providers the ability to make their mappings available as regular updates or as a historical archive through the directory,” the announcement reads. “Once launched the service will be available at 301works.org and will be managed and run by Gnip, Inc. while the participating companies work to identify an appropriate non-profit organization to manage the directory long-term.”
The project was in fact first proposed in April by the market leader Bit.ly, which created 301works as the equivalent for archive.org for shortened links. The service would be independently run and URL shorteners would upload new links every week ensuring that the links will live on. While it is clearly a good idea the project was rejected by every other player in the market and was mostly abandoned.
It took the Tr.im fiasco to get the public's attention and, more importantly, support from other services. Now several companies like Bit.ly, Awe.sm, Adjix, betaworks, Cligs, and URLizer have announced their support and the project is beginning to pick up Steam. It will be run by Gnip at first until it is possible to hand it to an independent organization as an open-source project. It is expected to launch within a few weeks as the companies involved want to leave their users a window of time to opt out if they want to.