“Bit.ly TV is like the internet itself. There are parts of it that are terribly serious and important — like the footage of students battling the basiji on the streets of Tehran — alongside other bits, like the upside-down French bulldog puppy and the Ukelele kid, meant to surprise and delight,” Bit.ly writes.
Bit.ly has managed to become the biggest URL shortening service out there, in no small part because it was selected as the default service by Twitter. It pretty much dominates the market at this point, a great thing in itself, but there isn’t any money to be made from shortening links for free, at least not directly. So, it has to get creative in order to generate revenue and utilize its biggest asset, the sheer amount of link data that passes through each day.
It’s not going to make any money with the video rankings, but the move hints at the wider possibili… (read more)