Comments on: If Libya Falls, What Happens to All Those Twitter bit.ly Links?

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:49:25 +0000

This is why I’ve always refrained from using country specific tlds.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:24:48 +0000

In your worst case scenario, bit.ly might be out of commission. However, bit.ly also owns j.mp and they use the same database, so if you find a broken bit.ly link, just replace bit.ly with j.mp and it’ll work. Case in point, this article:
http://j.mp/hNAk6C
http://bit.ly/hNAk6C
I honestly don’t understand why anyone uses bit.ly, when j.mp is two characters shorter and gives you all the same management tools, etc.

By: Kelley K.

Kelley K. — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:19:47 +0000

@freekeir

Thank you. It’s amazing that we are worried about this right now. I know this is a techie site but a little more compassion would not be unwelcome people.

By: freekeir

freekeir — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:55:30 +0000

doesn’t it seem a little trite to be worrying about what will happen to our, um, link-shortening service (seriously, can you imagine a more useless product in the grand scale of human history), when 100s, possibly thousands of people are being killed?

By: abstractmindz

abstractmindz — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:49:19 +0000

Worth noting that many of his own people aren’t listening to his orders these days. The operators in Oregon and Netherlands would probably ignore him.

By: tornadoes28

tornadoes28 — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:47:39 +0000

Why problem? Just use Goo.gl

By: Michael Bromby

Michael Bromby — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:07:44 +0000

Unless the Business Institute of Tripoli (BIT) wants the domain bit.ly – which might cause some unease! I’ve no idea if such an organisation exists, but a bona fide Libyan BIT acronym might arise from somewhere!

By: austinandrew

austinandrew — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:58:10 +0000

Thanks for addressing an issue that some other reports haven’t: even if .ly itself still resolves, Libya can still take action against Bit.ly.

But I’m not sure why you’re suggesting only a future government could take action — Libya could decide today to delete the bit.ly registration.

By: abstractmindz

abstractmindz — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:51:36 +0000

It means that if he cuts off the internet completely like Egypt did the domains will not be affected. But he can essentially order them taken offline.

By: Peta_de_Aztlan

Peta_de_Aztlan — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:02:48 +0000

Wish your article was more clear or I need to be better at comprehension. So does this mean that bit.ly will not be affected as long as it does not come out of Libya?

I prefer Bit.ly especially using Twitter with it to shorten websites. Thanks.