Well it doesn’t exist yet, but should – Google’s answer to TinyURL.com – the Google URL shortener.
Why should Google enter the URL shortening business?
I think a better question is: “Why not?’
If anyone could and should be in the url shortening business its Google.
Having a shortened url under a custom domain extension like .Google (dot.Google – custom brand name domain extensions will become available next year) would create more visitor traffic and page views which in turn would create more advertising inventory for Google to offer to Adwords advertisers.
Making the new Google’s shortened url service available to Blogger accounts would be a good place to start.
As it stands now, everytime a Blogger account holder wants to share their blog post, Google’s Blogger service generates a rather lengthy and unwieldy Google domain address.

Google Blogger Follow Share
Assuming the blog’s title is more than a single word, this renders most Official Google blog posts incapable of being shared directly with Twitter because of Twitter’s 140 character limit.

Share This Post
More often than not, Google Blogger account posts’ title and domain addresses far exceed the 140 characters available for sharing a blog post directly with Twitter.
Thus, the Google domain address has to be shortened which is an inconvenience to say the least.
Google then shortens their domain’s address to one other than the Google’s brand – the Bit.ly brand.

Share Blogger With Twitter
This process then requires opening a new browser window, copying and pasting the Blogger address into Bit.ly – what a pain in the browser!
Bit.ly is a great service but there is no reason why Google couldn’t make this whole process several steps shorter while retaining a bunch of traffic that was their’s to begin with.
To take this a step further – why doesn’t Google just co-opt the best form and functionality the url shortening industry has to offer and then distribute its shiny new TinyURL shortening service to all Google account holders through their Google Accounts dashboards?

Google Accounts URL Shortener
Between offering the new Google url shortening service to Blogger and Google Account holders, Google would surely realize the birth of a signicant new traffic generating property – the shortened Google URL.
BusinessWeek Testing Google Voice Call Me Voice Comments
November 23, 2009Clicking through to a BusinessWeek article today, I noticed what I thought was an ad for Google Voice.
Call Me Google
After closer inspection, I realized BusinessWeek is testing a “voice comments” feature for their Byte of the Apple column.
When I first saw the ad, I had no idea what it offered. Even after several minutes of playing around with it and clicking on the learn more link did I realize the BusinessWeek page had refreshed with the following explanation page:
Understanding what the ad offered, I then gave it a try.
I entered my Google Voice telephone number in the fields provided and clicked Connect.
Connect Call
Within a second or two of clicking connect, I reached a voice mail box where I heard Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek explain why they are testing the Google Voice product.
I was then urged to leave my comments about their Byte of the Apple column.
This is the first time I have noticed a website of any kind incorporate voice commenting into their user engagement mix.
Although I don’t have any comments about their Apple column per se, I do have one question about the Call Me Google Voice messaging product: When can I get a Call Me Google plugin for my WordPress blog?
Isn’t this type of audience interactivity something every publisher would want for their website?
Tags:Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek, Byte of the Apple, Google Voice Call Me, User Engagement, Voice Commenting, Voice Comments, Wordpress Blogs
Posted in Arik Hesseldahl, Blog, BusinessWeek Blog, Byte of the Apple, Google Voice Call Me, User Engagement, Voice Commenting, Voice Comments, Wordpress | 1 Comment »