Last week, Marc Benioff wrote an article on TechCruch titled “Hello, iPad. Hello, Cloud 2.”

In it, Mr. Benioff (chairman and CEO of salesforce.com) writes:

Our industry has gone through many shifts, but ultimately, the big ones have always been about software, not hardware. Now, we are seeing a simultaneous software and hardware revolution. The key apps we use in productivity, collaboration, communication, entertainment, education, and even health, will all be rewritten to take advantage of the new capabilities. This will result in a new generation that looks more like Facebook on the iPad than Yahoo on the PC. Our industry is changing. We all need to step up to meet this change head-on or we will leave an incredible opportunity behind.

His article discusses how new (mobile) hardware, such as Apple’s iPad, lends itself to the evolution of computing habits and, points out that many large companies haven’t even reached the Cloud layer–still stuck on mainframes.

The article singled out what he considers to be Cloud 1.0 sites (Google, eBay, Amazon) and names social networking giants Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube to Cloud 2.0 sites… I find his distinction to be pretty right-on; as someone long fascinated with technology and its role in society, I appreciated his analysis.

Cloud 1.0 vs Cloud 2.0

To me, what really seems to stand out about the transition from Cloud 1 to Cloud 2 is more the shift toward the “personal” (than it is evolution in the hardware driving it…though I do admit the line can be blurry when it comes to such enabling factors…) The biggest commonality I see among YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook is that they rely heavily on individuals (rather than businesses/institutions) to contribute content.

Cloud 2.0 Sites Succeed because They Cater to the Ultimate Niche Market–You!

These Cloud 2.0 websites play into the trend of finding success in niche markets (through targeting unserved & underserved groups)–I mean, how much more niche could you get than an individual? (and how much more ‘catered to’ could you make someone feel than providing a customizable solution, updateable on a whim?)

Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult to apply the efficiency of more-traditional successful business practices (like the assembly-line & one-size-fits-most models) when the niche is every single individual. A big part of the success of services like those of Cloud 2 is due to the ability of these sites to integrate new ways of thinking to get as close to these individual targets as possible.

The Weeds Grew In While I Was Busy Thinking About Me

I whole-heartedly believe that “Cloud 3″ will be a hybrid of Clouds 1 & 2–-a product of the return toward the void that will be created when everyone exists as his own niche market, rather than a community/collective.

Not Everybody is on the FaceBook-Bandwagon…

There’s a lot of disinterest in the Twitter/FaceBook/YouTube culture… For many of us, it has to do with the nature of such sites and the appeal that comes with their being ‘outlets’ to find/define one’s identity (read: Teen-Magnets.)

For some it’s more of a malaise, for others, however, there seems to be more of a stigma; either way, love it or not, there’s no denying that anyone who fails to see the value of trying to understand the powerful social (and potential economic) influence such sites have will miss the boat.

I’ll be honest. I haven’t exactly been a huge tweeter… Occasionally, I’ll check out what my buddies have been tweeting. Rarely, though, will l post anything…


During my infrequent twisits, I noticed the occasional tweet baring a suspiciously-short URL (such as “http://bit.ly/d0X6oK“). I assumed the URL’s presence was due to the fact Twitter was seeing so much traffic and figured they just hadn’t found a way to effectively weed out such “crazy” (read: computer-killing) web links. [To give an idea of how much traffic Twitter gets, just last week, TechCrunch.com reported that Twitter has hit the 50 Million Tweets per Day mark!)


Being one to avoid such virus-spreading traps as opening “dancing bear” emails or clicking on mysterious hypertext, I generally steer clear of following unsolicited links with foreign suffixes [like “.ru” (Russia) and “.cn” (China)] …better safe than sorry, right? And, as I wasn’t familiar with the funny-looking bit.ly domain, opting to visit tweeted URLs like “bit.ly/ANyTH1Ng” was pretty much out of the question. (btw, “.ly” is for Libya.)


So, when I stumbled across an article this afternoon telling of investors infusing “another $1.5 million” into bit.ly, I figured I may be under a false impression and decided I’d investigate. Come to find out, bit.ly is hardly the cyber-cesspit I’d unconsciously mis-categorized it as…

What the F is bit.ly?

So, if bit.ly isn’t a link to a bit torrent site that will auto-install spyware, what is it? Bit.ly describes itself as “a utility that allows users to shorten a long URL, share it, and then track the resulting usage.” A bit.ly link is a link generated by the site’s URL shortening service found at www.bit.ly“.

Why would you need to shorten a URL?

Good question. You’ll often see URL shortening services (like bit.ly) associated with social networking sites. Sites like Twitter limit the number of characters you can send in a message so using “http://bit.ly/9zeUYd” rather than “http://www.zettaphile.com/2010/02/22/ipad-or-ifad-whats-next-after-the-ipads-ho-hum-reception/” can save you about 75 characters (aka about half a tweet.)


There are a number of other popular URL shortening services out there, such as tinyURL and is.gd…and the list seems to be growing. In fact, in September of last year, bit.ly launched another domain which does the same thing, but saves you 2 characters: j.mp (interesting.ly–sorry, couldn’t resist–if you try the same URL above with j.mp instead [so, j.mp/9zeUYd], you’ll be directed to the same page.)

Btw, you may be interested to know that bit.ly is Twitter’s default URL shortener.

Do I Need to Know HTML to Use bit.ly?

No, in fact, it’s so easy anyone who can navigate to a web address can do it! To create a shortened URL, you enter the full URL you’d like to shorten, hit the button labeled “Shorten”…and, voila! It assigns your URL a new link. For example, the shortened URL for this web page is “http://bit.ly/cm3yFQ” (to prevent confusion, if you click this link, it will take you back to this page…)

What’re the Basic Pros & Cons of URL Shortners?

Well, according to an article on the pros and cons of URL shortners posted on the official WatchMouse Blog, the pros include being able to track & analyze clicks and being able to have a physically shorter URL.


Among the cons listed were that URL shortners add an additional potential point of failure (by incorporating another link into the chain) and the additional load time for pages linked to to fully load. Interestingly, from their testing only two shorteners showed 100% uptime–goo.gl and twt.tl. (Fairing the worst in terms of performance, surprisingly, was Facebook’s fb.me.)

Is That All There Is To Know About bit.ly?

Heck no! But in the spirit of bit.ly, I’ll end this article on the basics of bit.ly here. If you’re interested in learning more about how you can benefit from using this URL shortener, including how to see how many times your link was clicked on, check out bit.ly’s FAQs page.