New URL shortening service & API goes live

kiveo, LLC (http://www.kiveo.net) is excited to announce the Beta release of their new URL shortening service, kurl (http://www.kurl.it), and an API for easy integration into existing applications that make use of short URLs. The service is aimed at users wanting to provide short, human-readable URLs in stead of sometimes confusing longer URLs. An example case would be sharing website links with a friend on the phone. Say you stumble on a good deal at Urban Junkie's website and want to provide it to your friend. Rather than using the long URL (in this example: http://shopurbanjunkie.com/category-dresses-1/mai-tai-tube-dress-051809.html), or telling your friend the click path (click here, then there, then the other place...) you'd jump over to the kurl site and grab a shorter URL: http://kurl.it/pdg3sb.  This is an easy to read off URL that your friend can quickly type into their browser and see the same content as you, but with minimal effort expended on both sides.

API

kiveo has also provided a simple to use API that allows programmers to access the service through the CURL interface, jQuery's .get() method, PHP's file_get_contents() function, or any other way a programmer might want to grab the information. To use the API, programmers need only use the GET method to request a kurl'd URL. The API is located at http://kurl.it/api/. Currently, only one method has been implemented, create, which takes only one argument "url". The create method returns a text string of the full kurl'd URL or an error string containing the error. 

Example request:

http://kurl.it/api/create/?url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/23/ew.tr.knight.greys.anatomy/index.html

Example response:

http://kurl.it/p5czlr

Features

• De-duplication: a different kurl'd URL will not be created if the same website is submitted multiple times. If a URL has already been submitted, the service will provide a previously generated kurl'd URL.
• URL format validation prior to kurl'd URL creation. (i.e., does the URL look like it'd work?)
• Protocol validation: If the URL submitted does not contain a protocol (http://, https://, ftp:// are currently accepted), an assumption of HTTP is made and http:// is prepended to the URL prior to creating the kurl'd URL.
• URL validation (verifying that the URL resolves - i.e. does not throw a 3xx, 4xx or 5xx message, aka errors or redirection to another site, prior to kurl'd URL creation).
• User definable kurl'd URLs (e.g.: http://kurl.it/coffee in stead of http://kurl.it/abc123).

Roadmap

• Expand to include additional protocols.
• URL click tracking (see where your kurl'd URL is being used and how many people are clicking it).*
• Analytics integration.*
• Private kurl'd URLs: Exemption from URL 3xx (forwarding) validation & de-duplication checks for the purposes of Analytics integration and reporting.*

*Slated as premium features, meaning at least a site membership will be required to use the feature, if not an additional fee.