The API is now back online too!

Further to our post about being forced to shut down the API, you'll be pleased to know the API is now back online.

In the past, the API has been completely open. In other words, it required no authentication. This is where most of the botnet attacks and spam generation were coming in from.

To counteract this spam, we have now enforced the requirement of an 'API Key' (it was always optional in the past). This will allow us to shut down spammers within minutes of an attack (if they even bother now).

If you need one, you can get your (free!) API key from http://fwd4.me/api

We closed down, but now we're back!

You may have read that we closed down last week (don't worry, we kept all your old short URLs).

You will be (hopefully) pleased to know, that we're back!

The decision was taken to shut down the API completely as this was the main route in which spammers were able to use our services. We will be bringing the API back at a later date, but it will be for use by registered members only.

With this in mind, we have taken the rather controversial measure of deploying CAPTCHA tests on the main web site when creating a short URL, unless of course you are a registered member (as we trust you then).

If you have a Twitter account, you don't even need to register with http://Fwd4.Me as you can sign in to our site using your Twitter account.

Let the URL shortening commence once more!

UPDATE 02/01/2011: The API is now back online!

Popular URL shortening web site now responsible for making the Internet 20,000,000 characters shorter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Popular URL shortening web site now responsible for making the Internet 20,000,000 characters shorter

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 18 NOVEMBER 2010 - Popular URL shortening web site http://Fwd4.Me has today become responsible for making the Internet 20,000,000 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, less than six months since to make the Internet 10,000,000 characters shorter and just three months to double that figure to 20,000,000 characters.

Rich Kavanagh, Development Director, said, "Yet another great landmark figure has been reached today. I can't believe it's only taken three months to get from our 10,000,000 landmark to a new 20,000,000 landmark figure. It's a fantastic sign and our new features such as QR Codes for all URLs proves our continued commitment and dedication to our end users and supporters."

The magical link that tipped http://Fwd4.Me over the 20,000,000 mark was http://fwd4.me/oJo

Starting life as a 42-character long URL of 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRhTiJx8N0c', it was shortened to http://fwd4.me/oJo - a mere 18 characters short, saving some 24 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. The http://fwd4.me/oJo URL was used on Twitter today by @MoosePeterson - you can see the tweet at http://twitter.com/#!/MoosePeterson/status/5384773220438016

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 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 it 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/news/dukes_of_url_1_204188
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 and Resources:
Email: http://fwd4.me/contactus
Twitter: http://fwd4.me/twitter
Facebook: http://fwd4.me/facebook
High Resolution Logos: http://fwd4.me/hqlogo

###

Popular URL shortening web site now responsible for making the Internet 10,000,000 characters shorter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Popular URL shortening web site now responsible for making the Internet 10,000,000 characters shorter

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, 18 AUGUST 2010 - Popular URL shortening web site http://Fwd4.Me has today become responsible for making the Internet 10,000,000 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 and less than six months since then to make the Internet 10,000,000 characters shorter.

Rich Kavanagh, Development Director, said, "Another great landmark figure has been reached. I can't believe it's taken less than six months from our 5,000,000 mark too. I'd like to thank everyone who has supported us from our early partner developers to our end users."

The magical link that tipped http://Fwd4.Me over the 10,000,000 mark was http://fwd4.me/ZxN

Starting life as a 168-character long URL of 'http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/17/wired-web-dead/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+International', they shortened it to http://fwd4.me/ZxN - a mere 18 characters short, saving some 150 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. The http://fwd4.me/ZxN URL was used on Twitter today by @mediahunter - you can see the tweet at http://twitter.com/mediahunter/status/21454597068

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 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 it 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/news/dukes_of_url_1_204188
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

###

You can now shorten URLs from within Google Chrome!

Some good news for users of the popular Google Chrome browser.

Our good friend Victor Alberto Gil, otherwise known as @vhanla has been busy working on an extension that allows users of the popular Google Chrome browser to shorten URLs on the fly, from the current web page they are viewing, without needing to visit any other web sites!

The Chrome Extension is already proving to be very popular with over 3,000 people downloading it already and it is now averaging over 200 installations per week.

To install the extension, head over to http://fwd4.me/chrome and click on the "install" button:

Once done, you'll see a confirmation screen and a new "url" icon will have appeared next to the address bar on your browser:

There, you're all done!

When you need to shorten the address of the web page which you are viewing, simply click on your "url" icon and the URL Shortener window will appear. Click on our logo to shorten the URL:

As soon as you click on our logo, you will be presented with your new, short URL:

There, it is as simple as that!

Thanks again to @vhanla for developing this great Google Chrome Extension!

UPDATE: Firefox users, we've not forgotten you either, check out the ShortenURL Firefox Add-on here!