Redirect service

A redirect service is an information management system, which provides an internet link that redirects users to the desired content. The typical benefit to the user is the use of a memorable domain and a reduction in the length of the URL or web address. A redirect service can also provide benefit in giving a user-defined link to content with a memorable domain name. For example, a user may set up a link to a video on a popular website. If the owner of the website takes the video down, the user can now log in to the redirect service and point his custom link to another website providing the original video content.

History

The first redirect services took advantage of top-level domains (TLD) such as ".to" (Tonga), ".at" (Austria) and ".is" (Iceland). The first mainstream redirect service was V3.com that boasted 4 million users at its peak in 2000. V3.com success was attributed to having a wide variety of short memorable domains including "go.to", "i.am", "come.to" and "start.at". V3.com was acquired by FortuneCity.com, a large free web hosting company, in early 1999. As the sales price of top level domains started falling from $70.00 per year to less than $10.00, the demand for short urls or web redirection services eroded. Today, many short url services are still in operation including V3.com, now known as go.to, cjb.net, tinyurl.com and dozens of others.