That's part of bitly's premium offering. nytimes.com shortens to http://nyti.ms/1gQdV1r http://nyti.ms/1gQdV1r, Amazon shortens to http://amzn.to/1mCftnd http:

That's part of bitly's premium offering. nytimes.com shortens to http://nyti.ms/1gQdV1r http://nyti.ms/1gQdV1r, Amazon shortens to http://amzn.to/1mCftnd http://amzn.to/1mCftnd, and anything .gov shortens to 1.usa.gov: http://1.usa.gov/1iejWVe http://1.usa.gov/1iejWVe The shortened part is totally interchangable, ie http://bit.ly/1gQdV1r http://bit.ly/1gQdV1r still goes to the NY Times site.