Third party URL shortening services such as Bit.ly and TinyURL may be hit by the news that Twitter has now introduced their official t.co URL shortener. With the new shortening service, Twitter users can include a link in their tweets and they will be automatically shortened to 19 characters. As a result Twitter users will no longer need to rely on third-party services and will not need to leave Twitter to get their links to fit within the 140 character limit.
Twitter explains the decision to offer the service as something that will "protect users from harmful activity, to provide value for the developer ecosystem, and as a quality signal for surfacing relevant, interesting Tweets." However, unlike the third-party services, t.co can't be used a general URL shortener and will automatically come into play only on Twitter.
