A two days ago, we reported that Twitter acquired the twee.tt domain name, which uses .tt — the official country code top-level domain [ccTLD] for Trinidad and Tobago. We wondered whether or not the company was about to launch its own URL shortener, considering that Twitter has been launching many products and native services of its own lately.
Well, we don’t have to wonder anymore, as Twitter Co-Founder and CEO Evan Williams confirmed on Wednesday during the final Q&A session at the Chirp Developer Conference that the company will indeed launch its own URL shortener. He clearly stated that it would be “stupid” not to launch such a feature, given that most Twitter clients already have it.
William explained:
“We want to solve that problem. Everyone else has solved that problem. We are probably not going to give people a choice. If they want to use a different shortener, they can use a different app.”
At this point, it’s not clear if Twitter will end up utilizing its newly-acquired domain name — twee.tt — or something entirely different. For instance, the company already uses twt.tl as a tool to combat phishing and spam in direct messages. However, twee.tt would make more sense.
Another thing that remains unclear is how this will affect bit.ly, which currently is the default URL shortener on Twitter. Bit.ly seems to have build enough momentum to keep itself alive even if Twitter ditches it. New services like bit.ly Pro are sure to keep many users around.