Ow.ly and Ht.ly ~ Choose Bar or Non-bar URL Shortener for HootSuite
Vanilla or Chocolate? Bar or No bar?
Choice is good in just about any situation, and like ice cream, one flavor doesn’t fit everyone on the web. With a desire for choice in mind, HootSuite users can now choose between two flavors of links — one with a social bar and one without.
In this character-limited web, URL shorteners are of great importance — for statistics, for branding, or simply for convenience. Ow.ly is used to shrink hundreds of thousands of links daily by users seeking clickthrough statistics and the one-click convenience of shrinking a link in HootSuite.
Two to Choose
The links were/are presented with an opt-out “social bar” which provided options to retweet, share with more networks, add a rating, search Twitter, view other popular ow.ly links, and more.
However, not everyone needs all the extras, so now you have a choice: Ow.ly or Ht.ly (pronounced “hoot-ly”).
So, next time you login to HootSuite, you can choose which shortener you prefer — Ow.ly, which from today onward will have no social bar, or Ht.ly, which will have the social bar.
Whichever link shrinker you choose will become your default for all links you shorten in HootSuite, including links created with the one-click Hootlet tool.
Full Loaded Ht.ly
Ht.ly includes the social bar — a favorite tool of many marketing-minded HootSuite users who enjoy the benefits of amplifying their messages across networks. On-board tools include easy Re-Tweets, instant links ratings, and quick access to submit links to Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Facebook, etc. to increase measurable reach. Plus, the social bar includes a handy Twitter search box to help users continue exploring. The social bar has an opt-out close box as well, so the end-user has a choice to forego the social bar if they wish.
Example of a link shortened with Ht.ly - note the Social Bar
Lightweight Ow.ly
Ow.ly is the choice if you just need the basics — a short link and clickthrough stats — no marketing tools, simply a fully redirected URL without a frame.
Example of a link shortened with Ow.ly - note fully-redirected URL w/o frame
Custom Link Shrinker
Up next, HootSuite will be adding the Ow.ly/Pro service to provide custom URL shorteners for businesses who purchase “vanity” URLs. Signup to be among the first to know about Ow.ly Pro.
These URLs can reflect company branding through creative domain names like many major web brands. For example, Twitter recently announced the addition of a custom URL shortener twt.tl, Google also uses a custom goo.gl (from Greenland) which also creates QR codes, Wordpress uses wp.me, and Facebook uses fb.me (.me URLS are from Montenegro).
The URL shortening trend has created an interesting business opportunity for domain name providers who market the two-character codes from far-flung countries — examples: .im Isle of Mann, .tv Tuvalu, .fm Federated States of Micronesia, and .ly Libya — to companies seeking memorable and short branded domain names.
Fast, Reliable & Safe
Ow.ly is among the top 5 most used URL shorteners on the web and rated as a top performer. Technology industry news source, TechCrunch, in a study with Pingdom.com, rated Ow.ly as top choice of URL shorteners:
“When both the reliability and speed rankings are combined, ow.ly and bit.ly tie for first place overall …”
Research bureau Watchmouse keeps real-time status charts for popular URL shorteners and verifies Ow.ly’s performance as well as worldwide usage trends.
Further, both Ow.ly and Ht.ly check links against Google’s Safe Browsing blacklist to thwart phishing and Malware attacks.
Sprinkles on Top
Both options continue to provide deep click-through statistics, including regional breakdown, custom date ranges, and bot/spider filtering. Both URL shorteners also let you export reports and add custom URL parameters for even deeper analysis.
Also note that using the social bar with Ht.ly doesn’t impact your site’s SEO because Google and other other search spiders are passed straight through for indexing and ranking.
So which URL Shortener is right for you? Log in and choose — you can always change your mind later in Settings.
Media Resources
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Thanks for the opt-out option. I appreciate HootSuite and all the good things you are doing.Here’s to a great year ahead for you.
Jeff Brown
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This was welcome news for me. Once again you have demonstrated the ongoing maturation of Hootsuite and that you are going forward and listening to your users creating something for everyone. Well done.
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Love the product, but you really need to figure out a way to display the tweets retweeted by the retweet API in either its own column, or as part of the Mentions.
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I’ve been waiting for that option since almost since i started using HootSuite, THANKS!
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There is no product out there that can even touch Hootsuite’s awesomeness now! -Next the world!
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HootSuite–you’re the best!
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Any idea of when the ow.ly api will be available?
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I think you got that backwards. You’ve got everyone trained that ow.ly is an iframed link, to the point where many pass over clicking on it. If you wanted to offer a way for hootsuite users to use your shortener minus the bar, ht.ly was the domain to do it on. A fresh domain offered the opportunity to rebrand the links as iframe-free.
Good luck, bros.
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Dave Olson Reply:
May 17th, 2010 at 11:30 am
Thanks for your feedback – we do have reasons for implementing the way we did.
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How about giving us the full loaded Ht.ly bar option with our own branding excluding the Hootsuite branding for a paid fee?
Also it would be nice to be able to select per social network how we want to use the url options as opposed to being forced to use them or not use them across all of our social networks.
I would love to get more branding control over that bar
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Dave Olson Reply:
May 17th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Great idea, consider contributing this at http://feedback.hootsuite.com – this will allow others to vote the idea up.
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Just signed up for your product and so far I am blown away! I have considered may paid products, but none I’ve seen compares to this one.
I’ll start with the Ht.ly shortener and see how it goes.
thanks,
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Can I still track individual statistics on Tweets if using ht.ly?
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Dave Olson Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 10:15 am
Yes, both ow.ly and ht.ly gather stats the same way.
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Meg Reply:
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:16 am
Hi
We switched to ht.ly after your announcement. How do we see stats on the activity from the social bar?
So far that I can tell, I have to look at individual tweet stats to see User ratings? Is there a way to see an overall view of all tweets: how many Tweets, how many Shares, etc.?
Thanks
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Iam ready for it greeting from the Netherlands
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It’s funny because I never liked the tool bar, or share bar, but now given the option – I prefer it! Go figure.
I think any added chance of having my information shared is worth a shot!
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Leyla, I too never liked the share bar, yet how can one pass up the opportunity to maximize the impact of each unit of expended effort!
I am surely going ht.ly. I can handle the heavy weight!
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