RT.nu - Shorten URLs & Track Them

After reviewing an endless succession of URL shorteners I have developed quite a bit of an allergy to them. They are useful for sure, but nothing could merit a new one being released every day or so.

Today I have the honor of reviewing yet another one, which is actually an offshoot site of Retweet.com.



Let's see... input box for shortening purposes. Check. A bookmarklet for doing everything from your best-loved browser. Check. A collection of the links you have shortened so far and their usefulness. Check. A ranking of the most popular URLs that have been shortened. Check.

Clearly, everything that should be included is included. And to be fair, everything is in fine working order. Also, the site includes some features which will not be necessarily appealing to the general public but which are a good addition. These are a counter which showcases how many RT.nu links are clicked each hour, and full access to the relevant API. That is achieved via the main navigation menu.

If you have never seen a URL shortener before this will be a pleasing site. It is like listening to “Forever Changes” without having listened to any other 60’s album beforehand – it impresses you, you go “Wow!”. But once you place everything in context, you realize that no matter how good it seemed to be, it adds nothing to the scene as a whole even if it does what it set out to do admirably well.