Right before Thanksgiving we had our first real (albeit short) outage. We had implemented some new statistic features which ended up putting too much strain on the server and database. Unfortunately we were forced to back those features out but some good did come of the outage - as a measure to ensure to our customers that their data is always safe and always theirs we have rolled out the ability to export all of your links via CSV.
You’ll find the link at the bottom of your Dashboard. If your account is set up so non-admin can only see their own links, the CSV export link will only export your own link. Otherwise the resulting CSV file will contain data for all of the links on your account.
We know this data is important to you and your business and we treat it that way.
We have recently rolled out a number of new features that we’re pretty excited about.
When ShortSwitch was originally released there was a desire to only allow a given long URL to be shortened once and any subsequent shortenings of that long URL would return the existing token. Our users have spoken and we have now made this feature optional. By default the functionality is the same as it was before. Turn the Allow Duplicate URLs feature on and you can shorten the same URL as often as you’d like each time with a different token.
Another request we received from our users was the ability to run a long URL through a filter before it’s shortened. It’s great to give users the ability to shorten URLs but some times they just end up abusing it. With the Filter URLs option turned on the URL will be compared against the SURBL list of known problem URLs.
ShortSwitch is going strong and our users have been very busy shortening URLs. But the more you shorten harder it is to find that one token or URL you remembered using a couple months ago. To help with that we’ve introduced Searching of tokens and URLs. You can then filter or sort those results. Or search filtered or sorted results!
You may have noticed that these new features come from user requests and needs. We’re listening so keep the feedback coming!
We just passed through 1,000,000 redirections yesterday. Our traffic is growing monthly, and hit a knee in the curve so to speak over the last month. This is a milestone for our site, and we appreciate the almost 500 customers that have helped us reach this goal. Compared to bit.ly this is a drop in the bucket, but you have to remember that our business plan is different.
- We aren’t a public URL shortener. We offer a branded or white-labeled platform for companies and individuals.
- Our target customer is the company that is willing to spend $4 to $25/month for a branded URL shortener with a bevy of “enterprise” level features, but not $995/month…
- We are boot-strapped. The problem we are trying to solve is not a $15-million-dollar-investment type of problem.
We offer a service, API, and functionality that you or your company can leverage without having to build yourself and without having to fear it will disappear tomorrow (like some other free services).
We recently had a request to allow the root URL of your white-labeled domains to be redirected to another location, instead of the ShortSwitch homepage. Seemed like a great idea, so we added the feature. Now if someone sees your pithy short domain, and either strips the token or enters an invalid token, you can have them directed to a location on your web site. Both a custom invalid URL and a homepage redirect URL can be added in your account settings.
The TweetDeck Twitter client allows users to choose which URL shortening service they would like to use. They also allow you to specify an API string that allows you to choose any URL shortening service assuming that service returns the correct data. With the introduction of the “simple” format, ShortSwitch can return that data allowing you to use your ShortSwitch user as your default URL shortener for TweetDeck.
To do so simply log into your account and go to the Tools page. Scroll down to the section “TweetDeck Custom URL Shortener” and copy your unique API string. Then follow the TweetDeck directions for choosing a URL shortener (http://support.tweetdeck.com/entries/132632) and paste in the API string you copied.
You’ll be all set to use ShortSwitch as your TweetDeck URL shortener!
If you’d like to read more about the new “simple” format, please visit the API page.
When you create an account on ShortSwitch we ask for the domain that you want to use as your branded URL service and an email address and password that will be used for the account administrator. For plans that support multiple users, the administrator can create additional users with separate logins to the account. Only people with a valid login can create shortened URLs using your domain. As a user, when you login to the dashboard you see all links that have been created on the account. You can sort and filter on links by different users, and track which links are the most popular.
It’s a pain to have to login to create a new shortened URL. Therefore, we support various tools via our API so that you can shorten links from other applications. The simplest and easiest is via our bookmarklet. Each user on your account has a bookmarklet (see image) that they can add to their favorite browser. When you are on a website page that you want to create a shortened URL for, then you click your bookmarklet and it generates the short URL, and opens a new window with the details of the URL. This saves you the step of logging in to create the URL.
Each bookmarklet is tied to a user via their API key. If you need to reset your API key to make an old bookmarklet unusable, you can do that in the Users section of our dashboard. For example, let’s say you broke up with your boyfriend, but the bookmarklet is on his laptop, and you are worried he might create shortened links to some NSFW sites. Reset your API key and the old bookmarklet will stop working.
We have added an account option that allows you to switch to a bit.ly-style randomly generated 6 character token for your shortened URL. By default we use a base 58 incrementing counter that starts with a single character and increases from there.
Examples are: http://shor.tswit.ch/1 or http://shor.tswit.ch/7a
Some users have desired an non-incrementing counter so that links are not as easily guessable. To get a randomly generated 6 character token goto your account settings and check the box that says Use Random Token Generator.
Voila, your links can now look like this: http://l.neutronflux.net/1LL1Zx
QR Codes are starting to catch on in the US.
We offer two easy ways to turn your shortened URL into a 2-D barcode. First, you can get a QR code for your shortcode by making a request to your shortened URL with the added suffix of “.qr”. For example, the 2-D code for the link above is http://shor.tswit.ch/7a.qr and the resulting QR code is seen to the left.
The second way you can generate a QR code is by clicking on the button that says QR Code in the link details area of your dashboard.
