On second thought, Tr.im stays open

Just shy of two days after announcing it couldn't afford to keep URL shortening site Tr.im open, The Nambu Network says public demand for the site is far too great to simply shut down.

Tr.im will stay alive instead.

But there's a catch: Twitter (the main reason URL shortening sites took off in the first place) has aligned itself with competing service bit.ly, and Tr.im URLs are still getting replaced. In the Tr.im team's blog this afternoon, it says:

"Twitter has stacked the URL shortening business opportunity overwhelmingly in bit.ly's favour, as twitter.com currently operates. This is not whining, as some have suggested, but a simple reality. If we post a link to this blog article by its title Twitter switches our tr.im URL to a bit.ly URL. bit.ly has a monopoly position that cannot be challenged with reasonable investment or innovation unless Twitter offers choice. This is a basic reality of challenging monopolies. bit.ly has deep personal connections and agreements with Twitter that we simply cannot compete with. And it is our humble opinion that this type of favoritism will become an issue for all Twitter developers."

Nambu is reportedly still looking to sell Tr.im, so much of today's announcement delineates what the team is really looking for: a known investor who will not frame the tr.immed URLs or add interstitial advertising.

Even though it may seem like this was done to keep interest in the service high, the team says, "This was not a public relations stunt. At all."