Another URL shortener?

Welcome to way.com, a new URL shortener.

It’s true we are in the process of launching YAUSS (Yet Another URL Shortening Service). And yes, we already know that there are a number of other services on the market and URL shorteners may, in fact, even be evil. So, why are we doing this?  Well, we think that we have some very unique and original ideas in the URL shortening space that may benefit our users.  We’ll be providing more of these details as we get closer to launching.

One thing that we particularly like is our domain name – way.com.  We have a domain that is short, memorable and unique. In addition, this is a .com domain name and not a country code top level domain. What does this mean for you? Hopefully nothing, but it is possible that some country code domains may be restricted by allowed content policies set up by the country themselves. One prominent example is the .ly domain name which is Libya’s and follows Islamic law regarding what content is acceptable. It is possible these domains could be seized for violations of this law.  You can find two more in depth articles on this topic at the Workbench blog and Domain Name Wire.

“But you’re not the shortest!”
That’s true, we’re two characters longer than some of the most popular URL shorteners, but we’re still four characters shorter than the most used service. And, we’re the shortest URL shortener ending in .com (that we know of).  While we realize that every character could make a difference, we hope that our features will make up for these extra two characters.

Another thing to be concerned about is the reliability of URL shorteners. What happens if your favorite URL shortener suddenly shuts down?  With the number of them out there, this could be a real possibility. We’ve owned the domain name way.com since 1994 and have been running successful web-based businesses for many years. We know what it takes to keep a site up and running and we have the resources to commit to making it successful.

We invite you to follow us on this blog and on Twitter. We’ll let you know as soon as we’re ready to launch and keep you informed of some of the unique services we will be offering as well.  We hope you’ll give us a try and feel free to email us with any suggestions.

- Dave McComb, Chief Shortener