Tr.im is back – but for how long?

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URL shortening service tr.im is back – after telling us all just yesterday that the service was being terminated. Apparently making the top of Google News Sci/Tech section and all the feedback made Nambu (the vendor behind tr.im) change their mind.

There still is a fundamental problem though – tr.im – and URL shortening in general – don’t have a business model attached to them yet. Nambu isn’t going to insert adds into links either.

“We have no interest in framing tr.im URLs, or adding interstitial advertising to redirects, and some have suggested we do, or others would do with tr.im should they acquire it,” Nambu wrote in a blog post. “We will simply never do that out of respect for the fact that users created tr.im URLs based on this commitment. We do not see that as a viable revenue model as well, as it is not expected or welcomed by the individual visiting a shortened link.”

So they still don’t have a model – and without a model can any of us be sure they’ll still be here in a year? Then again as I’ve said before, Twitter doesn’t have a revenue model yet either.

Here’s my idea for a URL shortening service revenue model: Charge for premium analytics.  Yeaah tr.im offers decent analytics now, but perhaps a more robust reporting service that measures conversions, looks at referrers and has long term reports. Business would pay for that, tr.im can still have a free service, with a premium offering for those that need or want more.