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.
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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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