Apple-Owned 'iTun.es' Domain Could Be Used as iTunes Link Shortener

[MacRumors]

With today's announcement of integration between Twitter and Apple's social networking service Ping, some observers have noted that the Tweets being generated from Ping are including awkwardly-long URLs.

Example of Tweet generated from Ping
One MacRumors reader realized that the new integration with Twitter could make a good opportunity for Apple to deploy its own link shortener to help fit its links into the character restrictions imposed by Twitter. The reader let us know that he had discovered that iTun.es forwards to Apple's site and theorized that the domain could be used by Apple for just such a service.

Registration information for iTun.es
We dug into the situation a bit further and determined that the iTun.es domain is in fact registered to Apple via MarkMonitor, the brand management firm Apple uses to handle all of its domain registrations. The domain was registered to Apple in December 2006, meaning that Apple has not just recently moved to lock down the domain as a link shortener, but the new tie-in with Twitter does provide an excellent opportunity for Apple to roll out a service using the domain.

Article Link: Apple-Owned 'iTun.es' Domain Could Be Used as iTunes Link Shortener

 

[fabian9]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

Good idea, but I doubt they'll do it...

 

[dnaida]

app.le would be better

 

[jav6454]

They registered all the way back in 2006, so Ping is not just cooked up overnight, it has been simmering for a while now.

 

[dethmaShine]

itun.es sounds class, so why not

I am pretty sure, Apple was looking out for this.

So here we go: itun.es.
Totally makes sense to me.

 

[Rojo]

That would be great - though wouldn't they have just used this already?

Apple and "logical" don't seem to be seeing eye to eye lately....

 

[rprebel]

app.le would be better

.le isn't a TLD, so that wouldn't work. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong there.

 

[millerb7]

I think going to itun.es and having it redirect to apple.com was a pretty dead giveaway.

 

[dnaida]

.le isn't a TLD, so that wouldn't work. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong there.

maybe, but that sounds great!

 

[dlewis23]

Good idea. Hope they do, do it. Would make sharing links for apps looks so much better.

Pasting this in a forum looks so stupid http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/videoqube-for-ipad/id401804138?mt=8 being able to paste this: http://itun.es/401804138 would just look so much better

 

[shartypants]

Cool, it will be interesting to see if they start using for that.

 

[WildCowboy]

app.le would be better

.le isn't a top-level domain, so it would take some work or some geo-political events transpiring to make that happen.

They registered all the way back in 2006, so Ping is not just cooked up overnight, it has been simmering for a while now.

Nothing in the itun.es registration is directly related to Ping. They may have simply snapped it up to protect their brand and prevent anyone else from grabbing it.

I think going to itun.es and having it redirect to apple.com was a pretty dead giveaway.

Domain owners can redirect a domain anywhere they want, so itun.es forwarding to apple.com itself means nothing. But the registry information confirms that Apple does in fact own it.

 

[millerb7]

.le isn't a TLD, so that wouldn't work. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong there.

correct

 

[millerb7]

big enough hint imo

 

[tempusfugit]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8B117)

They registered all the way back in 2006, so Ping is not just cooked up overnight, it has been simmering for a while now.

That's bad logic. Apple would have bought all potential domains like this regardless of plans for ping. Companies do this all the time.

 

[elppa]

Slightly related: why doesn't apple use mobile.me?

Also .ng is the top level domian for Nigeria.

pi.ng anyone?

 

[millerb7]

Slightly related: why doesn't apple use mobile.me?

that's not exactly "short" for a service. itun.es is 2 characters shorter, and in the world of 140 character limit (twitter) every character counts.

But why would they not use itun.es when that's what the service would be used for? Just makes more sense.


pi.ng would make more sense.

 

[iOMV]

I wonder, who owns ipad2.com ???

 

[jav6454]

That's bad logic. Apple would have bought all potential domains like this regardless of plans for ping. Companies do this all the time.

Nothing in the itun.es registration is directly related to Ping. They may have simply snapped it up to protect their brand and prevent anyone else from grabbing it.

As far as I know, Apple URLs under Ping are long. Having a shorter version like itun.es seems logical. Now, did they know they were going to use it, probably not.

However, it doesn't discard the fact that the domain can well be used now to provide shorter links.

 

[Rojo]

Considering .es is the top level domain for Spain (España), I feel like Apple won't use it just for that reason.

 

[millerb7]

Considering .es is the top level domain for Spain (España), I feel like Apple won't use it just for that reason.

Why not?

Google uses goo.gl and gl is greenland.

 

[Rojo]

Why not?

Google uses goo.gl and gl is greenland.

Well Google is Google and doesn't care.
Apple is...well, Apple.
Image is everything to them....

 

[rprebel]

Well Google is Google and doesn't care.
Apple is...well, Apple.
Image is everything to them....

That's a reason to not use pi.ng (Nigeria), not itun.es.

 

[batchtaster]

he had discovered that iTun.es forwards to Apple's site

People didn't know that already?

imac.com, iphone.com, ipod.com, quicktime.com, itunes.com, macmini.com.....

 

[skeep5]

i don't get it.