Why most of URL shortening services use the domain .ly?

2 Answers

brendonbarnett | 1 year, 4 months ago

URL shortening came on the scene in 2001-2002 with TinyURL. Initially Twitter started using TinyURL for its URLs, but in 2009 Twitter's default URL shortening service was provided by bit.ly. Once Twitter exploded, these short URLs were seen everywhere, explaining their popularity. I'm not exactly sure why the .ly extension was used, since Betaworks, the company that began bit.ly is based in New York and not Libya. I'm guessing it's just a popularity thing, like how Hippy parents gave their children "far out" names (Sky, Star, Summer, etc.).

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.ly
http://betaworks.com/bitly.php

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battleroyale | 1 year, 4 months ago

They are short and can be easily remembered, like bit.ly and ow.ly. The .ly gives the domain a certain web 2.0 vibe, as it's easier to remember bit.ly than bitly.com or bitly.org, in my opinion. Also, two and three letter domains are hard to come by, so that's another reason.

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