Twitter is introducing two new features in an effort to combat malware and improve user safety. In an email released last night, the social networking site said they would begin to rollout a dedicated URL shortening service as well as new authorization rules for third-party applications.
The email announced that the social network site would commence the release of its URL shortening service from the end of the year. The new feature means that all links posted on Twitter.com or third-party applications will automatically be wrapped in a special format which can be monitored by staff at the site. It is designed to reduce the number of links to fraudulent or harmful websites.
A URL shortener is a service which reduces the size of a website link, allowing Twitter users to fit more characters into their message.
For instance, the address http://www.delineo.com/category/our-work/direct-marketing-our-work/ would be reduced to http://bit.ly/cHT8OK.
Writing for Forbes, Oliver Chian noted the announcement would be poorly received by companies with their own URL shortening service. He commented:
“This sounds like a good move for security on the service, but a bad move for competing URL shorteners like Bit.ly, which was the default shortener used by Twitter in the past. This isn’t the first time Twitter has caused strain to its relationship with the developer community that helped build out the functionality of its service, and it probably won’t be the last.”
Furthermore, the company has also announced it will begin introducing new rules for third-party applications which access the site. Starting from September, programmes which use Twitter to post updates (such as mobile applications like EchoFon or websites like TweetMeme) will be required to use a process known as ‘OAuth’ to access a user’s Twitter account. The new process is designed to improve user safety by ensuring third-party applications do not store passwords.
