Disqus - Latest Comments for toddml

Re: Bit.ly Introduces Bundles: Multi-Link Sharing With One URL

toddml — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:57:06 -0000

Alex, you can add/remove/rearrange links once you've created the bundle, and there's a handy box at the top of your bundle creation page that allows you to search through your history to find links, or paste in new links that you haven't previously shortened.

Re: Bit.ly is Harmful to Your Reputation

toddml — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:15:33 -0000

Todd from bit.ly here.

From day one, we've prized security, transparency, reliability, and openness at bit.ly. Along the way, we've made a number of product decisions based on those tenets. Among those are link permanence (link destinations don't change once created), the avoidance of anything that interferes with user experience (we've never framed, nor will we), and a dedicated focus on spam and malware detection, so that our users can click on bit.ly links with a high degree of confidence.

We take our responsibility as internet citizens seriously, and you'll see this exhibited even in the small details of the ways in which we manage flagged links (you'll notice we never actually disable a redirect, and at most simply insert an interstitial which retains the end destination link).

In the course of analyzing content for spam, malware, and phishing attacks, we rely on a number of systems, both internal and external. Over the course of the past year, a number of spammers have attempted to use various levels of indirection through redirectors (some of which are reconfigurable), in order to obfuscate and cloak their efforts. In fact, the bulk of shortens to bit.ly coming through other URL shorteners have tended to be attempts to spam the system. While our crawlers do of course follow links through redirections, the inclusion of modifiable redirects in the stream, and our analysis of the preponderance of spam attempts via these vectors have made it necessary and appropriate in some cases to block the URL shorteners.

Just to reiterate, the only goal is and always has been to protect the end user clicking on bit.ly links, regardless of the link source. Given that multiple layer wrapping of URL redirectors tends to be an edge case based on inappropriate API usage, confused users, or in the preponderance of cases, attempts to spam, we think this has been a fair approach. As such, you'll note that we did in fact update our interstitial warning pages with language better reflecting the reasoning behind the status. We're happy to see a healthy, vibrant, shortening ecosystem, and have no intention whatsoever to put a damper on other sites in the space.

Some have suggested we simply not shorten URLs already pointing to 3rd party short URLs. While this is a potential possibility, our API responses and the innumerable clients and scripts that use these methods aren't currently designed with this state in mind. Consequently, any changes would have to be carefully considered.

As with any product, bit.ly is a work in progress, and we're always interested in finding ways to best serve our users, while maintaining the integrity and openness of the product.

Re: shortening issues

toddml — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:38:53 -0000

This may just be a side effect of additional bot filtering. Please send details of any problems you may be having to support @ bit.ly

Re: Bit.ly Responds to Goo.gl and Fb.me With Custom URL Service

toddml — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:12:38 -0000

You can preview any bit.ly url (and get realtime stats) by adding a + to the end of the link.

Re: Announcing bit.ly Pro

toddml — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:51:15 -0000

You can always use http://j.mp , powered by bit.ly.

Re: Spam and Malware Protection

toddml — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:34:35 -0000

Hi Madaco,

We've flagged this link as malicious. In the future, you can send any problem links to abuse@bit.ly

Re: Preview bit.ly Links in Tweetdeck

toddml — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:17:12 -0000

If you go to the "Services" tab of your Tweetdeck Settings menu, you'll see an option to add your bit.ly account name and api key. If you do this, your links will begin to show up in your bit.ly history.

Re: Summary Bit.ly Stats

toddml — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:34:31 -0000

Yes, all of that is in the works. :)

Re: History Upgrades and File Uploads

toddml — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:04:06 -0000

It's coming, stay tuned. :)

Re: History Upgrades and File Uploads

toddml — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:48:06 -0000

"Each image you upload must be less than 1.5 megabytes in size. If it
is greater than that amount, your image will be optimized for internet
use. Flash files will be rejected if they are over 1.5 mb. Video files
must be less than 50MB and they will be automatically optimized by the
ImageShack toolbar before uploading."

Re: Overnight bit.ly Database maintenance

toddml — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:43:27 -0000

History should be working normally. Please try clearing your cache. If you have continued issues, please email support@bit.ly so we can help you further.

Re: Overnight bit.ly Database maintenance

toddml — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:20:49 -0000

No worries. We do our best to keep our users happy, and we take that responsibility seriously.

Re: 301working

toddml — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:55:07 -0000

the support email is simply support@bit.ly . You may simply have a cache problem. Try flushing your cache and reloading the page.

Re: 301working

toddml — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:01:52 -0000

The history reports haven't gone anywhere. Email support if you're running into problems, and we'll take a look.

Thanks!

Re: Weekend bit.ly maintenance

toddml — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:56:47 -0000

As mentioned in the blog post, approximately one hour, at 4AM Eastern.

Re: Spam and Malware Protection

toddml — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:50:33 -0000

Hi Joe,

Your link shows up as not found. Are you sure that was the link being passed around?

Re: Metrics System Status Update

toddml — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:48:14 -0000

Everything should be back to normal at this point. Can you send an e-mail to support@bit.ly with details?

Re: Historical Metrics System Status

toddml — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:32:42 -0000

Hi Anna,

The realtime system is still working. Our realtime metrics system only reports clicks that have occurred within the last hour, which is why you saw those numbers drop off over time.

Re: WARNING: Yet Another Twitter Scam Invades Trending Topics

toddml — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:59:43 -0000

We've blocked bit.ly links to the myworlds.mp and low.cc domains.

Re: Metrics Migration

toddml — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:09:45 -0000

Do you have an example? Everything should be working perfectly fine.

Re: Metrics Migration

toddml — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:19:02 -0000

If you're using adblock, try disabling it on bit.ly. In the meantime we'll track down the issue.

Re: The Power Of Passed Links

toddml — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:07:14 -0000

We're working with various twitter (and other) clients to outfit their links with referral context. Over time, you should see more applications filter into the referral data on bit.ly info pages.

Re: Overnight bit.ly maintenance

toddml — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:21:37 -0000

The window duration is specified up to one hour, but in reality we expect operations to be completed much more quickly.

Re: bit.ly blog

toddml — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:06:47 -0000

It's been flagged as spam.

Re: A Big Week for Little URLs

toddml — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:29:37 -0000

Updated for attribution.