HootSuite keeps adding features, introduces new URL shorteners

HootSuite has had a slew of announcements over the past couple of weeks, and today they launched several new URL shorteners that allay concerns users have had over the use of the .ly suffix (which tacitly supports the Libyan governing regime).

Owl.li and htl.li are 2 new options offered by HootSuite for URL shortening. Hailing from Liechtenstein, the new domains work the same way as the other HootSuite URL shorteners, Ow.ly and Ht.ly, by tracking clicks for statistical analysis, and both include the social bar.

Users can go try out the new .li shorteners by heading to their HootSuite accounts and doing the following:

1. Choose on-the-fly via the pull down menu under the compose window
2. Set as your default choice by choosing Settings, then Preferences, then selecting in URL Prefs tab
3. Customize your feeds with chosen domain when adding an RSS/Atom URL

HootSuite has provided users an infographic for those who are using the other .ly domain options for shortening in order to illustrate how data travels from the server to the user, which it hopes will clear up any confusion about how and where their data is handled.

The company also offers additional information on how its use of the .ly domain works on its website.

Despite having some downtime as a result of the Amazon EC2 outage, the HootSuite team has had a very busy week, adding Spanish language support as well as the new URL shorteners. Plus, HootSuite has offered all of its users compensation for the downtime, which is something not many organizations have done.