Recently in Identity Category

Last week Six Apart announced the shutdown of their free Vox.com blog service. One shortcoming of the system was the inability to use a custom domain name for a blog which means that users have no other choice than changing their web address should they decide to move to another service such as Six Apart's own TypePad, newcomer Posterous or Wordpress.com.

This shows again the importance of having control over your web address with a custom domain name. Similar to phone numbers, domains can be transferred between providers (registrars) and more importantly you can point them to any service of your liking.

So if you are a Vox.com user, before migrating your blog to another service you should think of buying your own domain name first.

Related articles:

• 5 Personal Domain Extensions Other Than .COM
• Your Usernames Do Not Belong To You
• 20 Website Hosting Alternatives To Your Geocities Page

The widely reported recent case of a Tumblr user summarily losing control of a sub-domain and related blog has fanned the flames of discontent amongst users of hosted applications worldwide. The rumblings emerged again last year with Facebook's back down in the face of a user revolt. The more recent Tumblr case also reinvigorates the debate over the subtle difference between a name squat and genuine usage. In any event this incident reminds us exactly how frail the laws of ownership seem to be across the nebulous world of the Internet.

Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Ning or any other service provider, they all have a point in common. You cannot own a web address such as http://facebook.com/yourusername or http://yourusername.tumblr.com because it is tied to THEIR domain name. If the domain (or company) fails for some reason you are not in control of your user-name and your content. Folks invest a lot of time building their online content and a deletion can be horrifying. So how does one go about protecting digital identity?

The domain name system (DNS) was invented in 1983 and .COM celebrates its 25th birthday this year. By 2012 there will be over 200 million domain names in use. Despite its age the DNS continues to provide reliable service to domain owners who enjoy complete control over how they use and manage their own domains. Unlike usernames, a domain is a secure asset whose operation is governed by a universal set of rules that registrars must operate within. The rules not only protect ownership, but also allow for full portability. You can transfer to a better registrar at any time and you can redirect your domain to any online service that you like.

Source: http://www.identitywoman.net/personal-anchors-on-the-web-for-digital-identities

With the full implementation of internationalized domain names (IDNs) and the introduction of new top-level domains the diversity of available domain branding options will continue to grow. Many companies keep a small portfolio of branded domains for future use and to protect their digital identity from being misused. Under the domain industry rules a user may secure their personal domain without any obligation to apply it immediately. If an ownership dispute arises, there are rules governing this as well.

If you think your preferred user name might be controversial, at risk or already taken, why not choose a more generic name and then register a domain to control your digital identity instead?

The sudden shutdown of popular URL shortener tr.im was already covered by the main tech blogs so we won't go into further details on the business side. In short the main problem resulting from this are the broken links someday and there's only one solution how you can prevent this in the future: run your own URL shortener.

Again, it all comes down to owning your namespace as discussed earlier with Facebook's username landrush. You are only able to fully control what's happening with your links if you own the domain name and run your own URL shortener on it. Anybody who's considering Twitter as an important part of their business or personal brand should start thinking about customising their short URLs now (also see our domain hack examples how they are used to create short links).

We have compiled a list of hosted services, scripts and plugins that make running your custom URL shortener possible:

Hosted URL shortening services with custom domain

• awe.sm - A custom URL shortener with API. detailed analytics, uptime guarantee and SLAs. According to their website you can take your data with you anytime.
• Tinyarro.ws - Use a custom domain with Tinyarro.ws' tiny links service. As their own service uses the ➡.ws domain you should also be able to use IDNs.
  
• budurl - The budurl Enterprise edition offer the possibility to use your own domain. Their dashboard provides extensive analytics and real-time stats.
  
• XR.COM - This free service is a basic URL shortening tool. If you don't need analytics and just want to shorten links XR.COM might be the right choice.
  
• Google Short Links - Google runs a URL shortener as part of Google Apps For Your Domain. It's a Labs feature but can simply be added to your dashboard.
  
• Peashoot - Manage social media campaigns with your own short URLs. If you want to grow your audience and haven't yet heard of Peashoot you've missed a great app.
• su.pr - StumbleUpon's own URL shortener drives traffic to your site can be used with a custom domain too. You need to install a small script or use Wordpress though.

Run a URL shortener on your own machine

• YOURLS PHP script - Small set of script to shorten links using a classic PHP and MySQL setup. Also offers an API and a Wordpress plugin.
  
• Short URL Wordpress Plugin - Create short URLs with this Wordpress plugin. Offers basic analytics and requires Wordpress 2.5 or higher.
  
• Movable Type script - Paul Roub's script to create a self-hosted URL shortener for the Movable Type blog software. You need some technical knowledge for this.
  

Other resources

If you don't have a short domain you should check out our list of ultra short and brandable domain names.