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If bit.ly would put in the referer logs the url where the bit.ly link is, then bit.ly would be much better for recipients of traffic from bit.ly. As it is, the
by pj 17y ago
If bit.ly would put in the referer logs the url where the bit.ly link is, then bit.ly would be much better for recipients of traffic from bit.ly.
As it is, the actual producer of the content being linked to has no idea where that link is on the web. Is it in a tweet? A blog comment? Where?
Bit.ly and other url shorteners are robbing content producers of valuable traffic information and giving it to the linker, but I would argue that it is much more important for the producer of the content to know who is clicking links and from where than it is for the person who links to the content.
This, of course, is one problem in addition to the increased layer of indirection and reduced reliability of content acquisition in the future due to the disappearance of the shortener.
- ivankirigin 17y agoAll that data is exposed and available via an API
- colins_pride 17y agoFor now
- ivankirigin 17y agoI know the people that make it really well. Changing the datat access would hurt their business. The real value is in aggregate data across sites, and putting very high API limits in place is all it would take to prevent scraping the whole set. Also it's not tenable to scrape aggregate stats in real time, which is half the value.
- aminuit 17y agoI'm pretty sure it's impossible for bit.ly to set the referer since it is supplied by the browser. If you could actually spoof the referer that would have fairly serious security consequences.
- pj 17y agoyep, that's a good point. I guess there's just no saving it then...
- slig 17y agoAFAIK, permanent redirects keep the referer from where you were.