I was so upset when I got to work this morning and found that not only had the chrome extension changed, the website had changed completely too.
It used to be that I'd click on the chrome extension icon and immediately get a link along with the page title that I could post straight to twitter or facebook. The j.mp/bit.ly homepage was bookmarked in my bookmarks bar and showed me everything I cared about in one place (the link, with another link to copy it, how many clicks on my link, and how many total clicks to that particular article).
I imagine they went "hang on, we're making life waaaay too easy for them" and proceeded to throw up the vomit that is the current homepage. Now to get the shortened link from the extension, I have to click save and them do some other nonsense to retrieve my link.
I'm the worst kind of angry about this ... angry and powerless, because bit.ly is such a part of my online life now (personally and a bunch of apps that I've written use it) that I simply can't do without it ... there's no other decent alternatives, plus I have this weird thing where I think its kind of rude to complain about a free service.
So apart from this, I'm just going to shut up and hope something better comes along so I can jump ship. It happened with delicious (pinboard), so hopefully, it won't be long.
Genuine question: What would you be looking for in an alternative? What are the must have features of bit.ly that no other service offers?
I ask because I have to wonder why people are having such a hard time finding an alternative. I thought there are loads of services out there that did similar stuff?
It used to be that I'd click on the chrome extension icon and immediately get a link along with the page title that I could post straight to twitter or facebook. The j.mp/bit.ly homepage was bookmarked in my bookmarks bar and showed me everything I cared about in one place (the link, with another link to copy it, how many clicks on my link, and how many total clicks to that particular article).
I imagine they went "hang on, we're making life waaaay too easy for them" and proceeded to throw up the vomit that is the current homepage. Now to get the shortened link from the extension, I have to click save and them do some other nonsense to retrieve my link.
I'm the worst kind of angry about this ... angry and powerless, because bit.ly is such a part of my online life now (personally and a bunch of apps that I've written use it) that I simply can't do without it ... there's no other decent alternatives, plus I have this weird thing where I think its kind of rude to complain about a free service.
So apart from this, I'm just going to shut up and hope something better comes along so I can jump ship. It happened with delicious (pinboard), so hopefully, it won't be long.