eBay.com adds auto URL shortening service for Twitter

by Chris Dawson

If you’re a fan of twitter the one thing that probably annoys you is that website URL addresses take far too many of the valuable characters available in a single Tweet. There are plenty of URL shortening services such as bit.ly, tiny.cc, goo.gl, is.gd and prune.it, but the twitter links on eBay don’t make use of any of these services.

On eBay UK if you click the Twitter link on any eBay listing it’ll add in a product link such as http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/260701074639, but Laurel Kline, who works for eBay in the eBay Developers Program, has just leaked that a new URL shortening is live on eBay.com. If you click the twitter link from any auction on the US site the URL will automatically be shortened in the format http://r.ebay.com/2vs2Un.

Such a simple innovation, but one that leaves more space for enthusiastic buyers to add their own comments when they’re tweeting about items they find on eBay. Brilliant! Why did no one think of it before and when will it roll out to eBay UK? Read more at tamebay.com