FIVE MILLION CHARACTERS!

Well, that's it, we've done it, another major landmark figure has been achieved today...

The UK's Number One URL Shortener is now responsible for making the Internet 5,000,000 characters shorter!

It's been an explosive ride too. We launched in May last year which means it taken us just nine months to go from making the Internet zero characters shorter to a staggering five million characters shorter.

The magical link that tipped us over the 5,000,000 mark was:

http://fwd4.me/HIx

Starting life as a 254-character long URL of 'http://sfx5.exlibrisgroup.com/cmich?genre=article&sid=ProQ:&atitle=Workplace%20Violence%2D%2DWhat%20Can%20Employers%20Do%20to%20Prevent%20It%3F&title=Employment%20Relations%20Today&issn=07457790&date=2007-10-01&volume=34&issue=3&spage=91&au=Lynn%20Lieber', we shortened it to http://fwd4.me/HIx - a mere 18 characters short, a saving of some 236 characters!

Most of the short URLs created on our web site are used on the popular micro-blogging service, Twitter. A simple search for 'fwd4.me' on Twitter will reveal quite literally thousands of our short URLs in action. We are avid users of Twitter too, be sure to follow us on @Fwd4Me

Recently we have also seen our short URLs starting to appear on social networking web site, Facebook. Therefore, to accomodate our users on Facebook, we have set up a Fan Page at http://fwd4.me/facebook where you can follow all our developments there too.

We mentioned earlier our explosive rise to rapidly become The UK's Number One URL Shortener, here are some of the highlights that have happened along the way:

1st May - http://Fwd4.Me web site launches

13th May - Automated cookie-based logins

24th May - Create your own Custom URLs

28th May - API launched

6th June - Preview functions for short URLs launched

7th June - Responsible for making the Internet 10,000 characters shorter

5th August - Major code overhaul unlocks 1chr short URLs


18th August - Responsible for making the Internet 50,000 characters shorter

23rd August - Spam prevention, already shortened URLs now blocked

23rd August - Detailed statistics on your short URLs launched (busy day!)

7th September - Short URLs - How do they work? (great article!)

15th September - Responsible for making the Internet 100,000 characters shorter

29th September - Ability to shorten URLs up to 2,000 chrs long

14th October - Responsible for making the Internet 250,000 characters shorter

4th November - Responsible for making the Internet 1,000,000 characters shorter

14th December - ShortenURL becomes the most popular Firefox Add-on for shortening URLs

16th December - Responsible for making the Internet 2,500,000 characters shorter

23rd December - UNFwd4.Me Launched - The URL UNshortener with a twist!

4th January - Always preview all short URLs before being redirected

31st January - TweetMeMe confirm our integration into their applications

21st February - Facebook Fan Page launched

23rd February - QR Codes for all URLs launched

As you'll see, one of our highlights recently has been the successful launch of our URL UNshortener, http://UNFwd4.Me

Our URL UNshortener comes with a twist too. You can enter in any existing short URL that you like and it will show you the real / long URL behind it. Handy if you think it might be malicious or contain spam. However, not only does our URL UNshortener make short web address into long ones, if possible it will also make your existing short URL even shorter!

For example, entering 'http://tinyurl.com/ybh9drs' into our URL UNshortener will show you the long URL that it would have redirected you too, plus it will also make that short URL even shorter still. In this case 'http://tinyurl.com/ybh9drs' becomes 'http://fwd4.me/9HY' so your old short URL was 26 characters long and your new short URL is just 18 characters, that's a reduction of 8 characters (and every character counts when using services such as Twitter!). See the results for yourself in this live example: http://UNfwd4.me/longurl/?url=http://tinyurl.com/ybh9drs

Finally, if you're wondering how all this URL Shortening stuff works, be sure to check out our detailed explanation at http://Fwd4.Me/HowItWorks

So now we look forward to the 10,000,000 marker. Rest assured, our integration, our developments and our new features will keep on coming!

Official Press Releases: http://fwd4.me/Gc

Popular URL shortening web site now responsible for making the Internet 5,000,000 characters shorter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Popular URL shortening web site now responsible for making the Internet 5,000,000 characters shorter

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 26 FEBRUARY 2010 - Popular URL shortening web site http://Fwd4.Me has today become responsible for making the Internet 5,000,000 characters shorter.

A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is an address that shows where a particular page can be found on the Internet. Web page addresses have been getting considerably longer for quite some time now and users can often run in to trouble when trying to email a long URL to a friend as when it arrives at the recipients end it will often be broken into segments by the email program and will no longer work. A URL shortener takes a very long web site address and turns it into a shorter, more manageable URL.

Launching in May 2009, it has taken just ten months to go from making the Internet zero characters shorter to a staggering five million characters shorter.

Rich Kavanagh, Development Director, said, "It’s a fantastic landmark figure. When we first started out back in May, we always had a counter on the front page of our site and it’s been great watching it grow so rapidly. We’ve got lots of new developments in the pipeline (such as QR Codes and a more advanced API) and we are currently speaking to a lot of people like TweetMeMe about integrating our services into theirs to make all our product offerings even more useful.”

The magical link that tipped http://Fwd4.Me over the 5,000,000 mark was http://fwd4.me/HIx

Starting life as a 254-character long URL of 'http://sfx5.exlibrisgroup.com/cmich?genre=article&sid=ProQ:&atitle=Workplace%20Violence%2D%2DWhat%20Can%20Employers%20Do%20to%20Prevent%20It%3F&title=Employment%20Relations%20Today&issn=07457790&date=2007-10-01&volume=34&issue=3&spage=91&au=Lynn%20Lieber', they shortened it to http://fwd4.me/HIx - a mere 18 characters short, saving some 236 characters.

Most of the short URLs created on http://Fwd4.Me are used on the popular micro-blogging service, Twitter. A simple search for 'fwd4.me' on Twitter reveals quite literally thousands of their short URLs in action.

Scott Stevens, Design Director, said, "I think it’s great making the internet five million characters shorter, especially when such large organisations around the world have contributed to this, we have the likes of GoDaddy, HP, Hull City Council and Rockman Music Productions all using our services and helping us make the world a shorter place."

http://Fwd4.Me includes some rather unique features too, such as the ability to create custom or personal short URLs with meaningful names, along with the ability to password protect short URLs. Also, for those concerned that a short URL might contain spam or point to a malicious destination, http://Fwd4.Me off a full 'Preview' of each short URL which not only shows the destination URL but also includes a screen shot of the web site in question. http://Fwd4.Me also offer a free Application Programming Interface (API) to allow other web sites and application developers to include URL shortening features in their own projects. Free statistics are also available for each short URL created which will inform you of useful information regarding how many clicks your short URL has had and when it was last clicked.

During their climb to become the UK's number one URL shortener, there were some highlights along the way which included recently launching the UK’s first URL UNshortener - http://UNFwd4.Me

The unshortener comes with a unique twist too, you can enter any existing short URL and not only will it show you the long URL behind it, thus preventing the effects of spam and malicious content, but it also goes one step further and if possible will also make your existing short URL even shorter still.
http://Fwd4.Me have also published behind the scenes details of how their URL Shortener works at http://Fwd4.Me/HowItWorks

### ENDS ###

About http://Fwd4.Me
http://Fwd4.Me is a URL shortening service, created by Rich Kavanagh and Scott Stevens and launched on 1st May 2009. Within six weeks of launch http://Fwd4.Me were responsible for making the Internet 10,000 characters shorter. By September 2009 they became responsible for making the Internet 100,000 characters shorter and responsible for making the Internet 1,000,000 characters shorter in November 2009. In January 2010 both Rich Kavanagh and Scott Stevens were interviewed for a news article by Lancashire Publications - http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Dukes-of-URL.5982179.jp
Some of the more lengthy URLs shortened by http://Fwd4.Me include ones similar to this 1,100 character long URL was shortened to just 18 characters, therefore making it 1082 characters shorter: http://fwd4.me/preview/?4qY


Conacts & Resources:
Email: http://fwd4.me/contactus
Twitter: http://fwd4.me/twitter
Facebook: http://fwd4.me/facebook
High Resolution Logos: http://fwd4.me/hqlogo

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QR Codes now offered for all short URLs!

We had a request from a few users of our web site to build in some functionality for QR Codes when creating short URLs.

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese automotive technology organisation DENSO in 1994. The 'QR' is derived from 'Quick Response', as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. The use of the QR Code is free of any license. The QR Code is clearly defined and published as ISO standard. DENSO owns the patent rights on QR Code, but has chosen not to exercise them.

QR Codes are becoming increasing popular worldwide and most current mobile phones with a camera can read these codes. You can download a QR Code Reader for your phone from http://ScanLife.com

A typical QR Code looks like this:

When you create a short URL on our web site, you will now also be presented with the option to view the associated QR Code (click on this screen shot to enlarge):

If you choose to view a QR Code for your short URL, you will see the following page:

From here, you can right click on your QR Code to save it, or point your mobile phone camera at it!

Hopefully you'll find this, and our other new features, of use.

As ever, if you have any ideas or suggestions for other development and new features, hit the 'Feedback' tab on the right hand side of this window.

Our new Facebook fan page

We know a lot of you use popular social networking site Facebook so with that in mind we have just set up a Facebook page so you can become a fan!

As we continue to post developments and new features here on our official blog, we will also be mirroring them on our Facebook page too so you'll only need to check for updates in the one place to stay fully informed.

See you on Facebook via http://fwd4.me/facebook

Unblocked!

Just a quick update to say that Facebook now appear to have lifted their block on URL Shortening sites!

Excellent news we're sure you'll agree.

We think it was Blake Ross (co-founder of Firefox and now working at Facebook) that got the block lifted, but we can't be sure...

Either way, whoever it was, thank you!

Integration, Integration, Integration...

In case you hadn't noticed, we have been on bit of an integration drive recently!

With the usage of our API now starting to exceed that of our web site, we are keen to expand our offerings even further. This over-take in usage methods is due to the popularity of all sorts of sites and services on the Internet such as the Firefox Add-on ShortenURL which allows you to shorten the URL of any web page you are viewing, from within the actual web page itself - you don't even need to leave the web site.

We've been speaking to a lot of people over recent weeks, looking to integrate our services with theirs and offer you some URL shortening services from all manner of different places.

You might be pleased to know that the next release of TweetMeMe will feature http://Fwd4.Me support. TweetMeMe is a service which aggregates all the popular links on Twitter to determine which links are the most popular. TweetMeMe categorises these links into Categories, Subcategories and Channels, making it easy to filter out the noise to find what you're interested in. They also provide the tweet buttons you see on the top of these blog posts too. So, if you use the TweetMeMe buttons on your own web sites and blogs, you'll soon be able to select http://Fwd4.Me from the list of supported URL shortening services!

Last week we also successfully integrated with BackTweets, the site that allows you to easily search for links posted on Twitter. We're also currently speaking to TwitterFeed on similar lines...

We are also now featured on Get Satisfaction, indeed all our support is run through their service offerings.

Do you use Google Chrome? If so, you'll also see us on the next version of URLShortener, the popular Google Chrome Extension which offers similar features to ShortenURL for Firefox.

Possibly in the pipeline, but very early days yet, we have approached SocialOomph, UberTwitter, Tweetie and SharedMinds to discuss various options - we'll keep you posted if these blossom into something fruitful!

In other news, we are also looking for Firefox Add-on and Google Chrome Extensions developers to help us with a URL UN-shortening project.

Can you help us communication our integration mission to the world?

If you use any sites or services that you'd like to see your favorite URL shortener integrated with, or similarly if you run a web site or have an application that could benefit from partnering with a URL shortening service, get in touch, we'd love to talk!

Calling all Firefox Add-on and Google Chrome Extensions developers!

As you may be aware, we have been busy working in the background on a URL UNshortening web site over at http://UNfwd4.me

Our URL UNshortener has been building pace, now turning all manner of short URLs back in to long ones again.

Having used (and loved!) the ShortenURL add-on for Firefox, we had an idea for a Firefox Add-on (or a Google Chrome Extension) that could utilise the API services provided by http://UNfwd4.me

However, knowing nothing about Firefox Add-ons or Chrome Extensions, we have no idea where to even start on building such an add-on.  Web sites and services we can code, browser extensions we can't.

This is where you come in!

We would be very interested in anyone who could develop a very simple add-on for Firefox that could UNshorten any web address that your mouse simply hovered over, using the http://UNfwd4.me API. For example, if you were viewing a Twitter or Facebook page and came across a URL which had been shortened, simply hovering your mouse over the short URL would send an API request in the background to http://UNfwd4.me and then could produce a small and neat popup (or small window) that would reveal the long URL / real destination of the short URL that you were looking at (click to enlarge), eg:

Hopefully this makes some kind of sense!

So, if you develop (or if you know anyone who develops) Firefox Add-ons or Google Chrome Extensions, please, get in touch, we'd love to talk!

Facebook block URL shortening services - Can you help get them unblocked?

For whatever reason, ever-popular social networking web site Facebook have taken it upon themselves to start blocking nearly every URL shortening service under the sun, with the exception of fb.me (their own one!) and bitly, it would seem.

If someone posts a shortened URL on Facebook, it is accepted as a genuine post, like so:

However, if you try clicking on it, you get the following message:

 

As mentioned, this happens for nearly every URL shortening service under the sun. We tried fourteen different short URL providers, all but two were blocked.

Clearly at some point somebody has reported a shortened URL as malicious or bad (for whatever reason) and the powers that be at Facebook have simply decided to block the entire domain, rather than just the actual URL itself.

Utterly ridiculous...

We have tried and tried to get through to someone at Facebook to explain all the measures that we have put in place to prevent spam and malicious use of our services (plus that fact that any short URLs reported to us as being 'bad' are investigated and suspended within four hours of it being reported) but nobody ever replies to us. Ever.

We are not sure what else we can do, Facebook simply don't reply to our requests for discussion...

Therefore, if YOU know of anyone who works at Facebook, can you kindly put us in touch so we can explain they only need to block (or even report!) the actual URL in question, not an entire domain?

We are sure there are many other short URL providers in the same boat...

UPDATE (18/02/10): Facebook unblock URL shortening!

Get Satisfaction community-powered support

We've been working with Get Satisfaction recently and after a couple of minor bug issues with Firefox, we have now successfully implemented our community-powered support site!

You can use our new community-powered support site at http://GetSatisfaction.com/Fwd4Me for asking general questions about our services (including our API), suggesting and sharing ideas for new and additional features, reporting a problem (should you ever have one!) and last but not least, offering your praise.

Appearing on the right hand side of this blog post is a new "Feedback" button. Clicking it will bring up the various options available to you. This button will feature across all our web sites very soon.

The Feedback button will be appearing on the home page of http://Fwd4.Me on our next release, due to go live in a day or two.

Get in touch with the Fwd4.Me community: http://GetSatisfaction.com/Fwd4Me

Thank you!

This is just a quick thank you post really as we are always grateful for any and all support we get!

So, thanks go out to @HPPrint4Life and to @BluesandSoul for using http://Fwd4.Me on their Twitter accounts.

Also, MASSIVE thanks to TweetMeMe for very kindly agreeing to include our URL shortener in their next release, we'll let you know when it goes live!