In late October, after Bit.ly had firmly established itself as Twitter’s service of choice, it looked like URL shortener service Cligs would close down. As of today, the company will see a new management team as social bookmarking service Mister Wong has agreed to acquire it for an undisclosed sum.
Says Clig’s founder Pierre Far, “I’m very happy with Mister Wong as they have an excellent track record of building large communities and keeping them happy. They also have the resources to continue the development of the service and keep it competitive in the market. Cligs has always been a side project, but the service grew too big to take care of in my spare time.” Far began his quest for a buyer in early October.
In August ReadWriteWeb covered the commercial demise of URL shortener service Tr.im and its subsequent resurrection as an open source release. A number of services have failed to find exit strategies in this crowded space so it appears that Far’s deal with Mister Wong is fortunate one.
When we asked Far where short links go when they die, he pointed to 301works.org . 301works is an Internet Archives initiative created to preserve short URL links in the event of a shutdown. If a short URL company faces closure 301works takes control of shortening domain services and ensures that links remain intact. While the technical side of the program has not been completely laid out, a number of companies have agreed to show the 301works seal including Bit.ly, Cligs, Twurl, Awe.sm and AppsFire. To apply check out 301works.org here.
