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Noticing more Twt.tl links? Twitter’s got your back.
If you’ve been active on Twitter over the last 24 hours, you may have noticed a few more Twt.tl URL’s popping up.
In case you’re unaware, Twt.tl is Twitter’s own URL shortener and has been used sparingly to combat phishing attacks and to protect its users. Today the company is renewing its efforts to combat these attacks by sending virtually all URLs sent via direct messages or email through a filtering system.
In a blog post the company says:
“By routing all links submitted to Twitter through this new service, we can detect, intercept, and prevent the spread of bad links across all of Twitter. Even if a bad link is already sent out in an email notification and somebody clicks on it, we’ll be able keep that user safe.”
This will mean all harmless URLs, you will reach without concern, but any URLs Twitter consider’s unsafe you will see a warning page.
The Twt.tl URL was first announced in 2008 but only now, after the frequent phishing attacks on its users will it be put to full effect. Whether we’ll see this replace bit.ly as Twitter’s default URL shortener, we’ll have to wait and see.
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Discussion - 13 Comments/Pingbacks RSS feed for comments on this post
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Bit.ly (and other shorteners) really missed the boat on this one. Had they developed their own technology to detect & re-route malware links, that could have been a major selling point for their service. Instead, Twitter had to bring it in-house.
I'm a bit worried about privacy there, but at the same time happy that this will cut down on Twitter spam a bit. :)
+1 Derek. Good point.
What have you gotta hide? :P
Me personally? Absolutely nothing. XD
But it's an issue I bet a few people might want to be wary of.
OOps! wrong title .. it is not Twt.li :)
If you're sharing a link via twitter, why would you care? And if it's porn or a hacker – good!
What does this do for the ability to track stats on short URLs through things like bit.ly? If Twitter is auto short URLing what you send, if you tweet a bit.ly link, does it short URL to the bit.ly or does it short URL to the source the bit.ly points to?
I just wanted to let everyone know that your Bit.ly url will continue to work behind this. If your Bit.ly url redirects to a good long url, you have nothing to worry about.
Rex
Community Manager, Bit.ly