Branded URL Shorteners

Vb.ly is a URL shortener that that is meant for NSFW (Not Safe For Work) links. It is an interesting concept, a branded URL shortener. It could be the beginning of a trend. Of course, the site does not monitor the links to make sure the links are NSFW. Then again, with the idea being that the URL is for inappropriate links, what would there be to censor save viruses. While it is an interesting concept to have branded URL shorteners, they would still suffer from the same trouble of all other such services. They would also have to figure out a quick and cheap way to monitor the links or it could quickly become general purpose like the rest.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10313617-250.html

"At first glance, this sounds like a joke, doesn't it? Sex writer Violet Blue has launched a new URL shortening service, Vbly (found at Vb.ly), called "the Internet's first and only sex-positive URL shortener."

This means that Vbly has a different policy than other shorteners. Blue, and Vbly creator Ben Metcalfe, encourage the use of this service for creating links to adult sites and other "NSFW" links. They do not run their links through filters, as the market-leading Bitly (found at Bit.ly) does. Although, as Blue says. "I think we'd remove links if we were asked to by a court or if we were made aware of anything involving illegal activity."

"