Tr.im unshortens lifespan, returns to life

Tr.im to fight on despite bit.ly's 'monopoly' on Twitter
Tr.im to fight on despite bit.ly's 'monopoly' on Twitter

Less than two days after shutting down its service and announcing it was moving to 'greener pastures', Tr.im is back to its business of trimming URLs.

The URL shortening service closed its doors to new business on Monday, citing bit.ly's domination of the Twitter service and admitting that it couldn't imagine how to make money from its business.

Today, however, a blog posting gushed, "We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the popular response, and the countless public and private appeals to keep tr.im alive. We have answered those pleas. Nambu will keep tr.im operating going forward, indefinitely."

Twitter monopoly

The company still accuses Twitter of favouritism, claiming that: "Twitter has stacked the URL shortening business opportunity overwhelmingly in bit.ly's favour. Bit.ly has a monopoly position that cannot be challenged with reasonable investment or innovation unless Twitter offers choice."

Tr.im insists that it won't frame redirected links with adverts and that it is still very interested in selling the business, but only to to "another party committed to ensuring the links are not highjacked in any way."

It will be interesting to see if anyone bites at buying tr.im, especially given the company's statement on Monday that questioned the viability of the entire URL shortening industry.

Head over to http://tr.im if you want to make them an offer - or just slim some web addresses.