WordPress Joins URL-Shortening Revolution

The dramatic rise of Twitter over the past two years has prompted a number of Twitter platform vendors and independent developers to come up with ways to shorten links that eat up precious tweeting space.

Most of us are quite familiar with TinyURL, bit.ly and ow.ly. Now WordPress, the popular open-source blogging platform, will have its own URL shortener (or “short-link” generator). As CNET News.com’s Rafe Needleman explains:

When you’re creating a post on the WordPress.com service, you get an option to create a wp.me link alongside the post’s default link.

Hey, I just figured out “wp.me” means “WordPress Me”! Pretty clever. Meanwhile, WP founding developer Matt Mullenweg lays out the logistics:

There is now a “Get Shortlink” button next to your permalink when you edit or write a post, and when you click it you’ll get a popup with the beautiful link already highlighted for your copy and pasting pleasure.

If you’re logged in you can also get the shortlink for any page on WordPress.com, there’s a link under the “Blog Info” menu in your admin bar.

Sounds simple enough.

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