bitly.Pro is, in essence, a “white-label” edition of the public service, where a short URL such as http://bit.ly/bHRDfP can now be replaced by one with a custom domain, such as http://imrn.me/bHRDfP.

As well as the ability to utilise a custom domain, bitly.Pro also provides a dashboard view, enabling users to view analytics on all the links shared from your custom domain. I put bitly.Pro through its paces today by registering my new domain — imrn.me. Setting up the service is surprisingly easy; here’s how I did it:

1. I registered imrn.me with GoDaddy.
2. I changed the domain’s nameserver settings to point at my own MediaTemple-hosted server.
3. I altered the DNS records (A and CNAME) for the new domain to verify and redirect to bit.ly.pro.
4. I logged into bitly.Pro with my standard bit.ly account details to link both account histories.
5. Used the standard bit.ly bookmarklet to generate my first custom shortened URL: http://imrn.me/90mM9Q

All in all, the entire setup process took me around 10-15 minutes and the new real-time analytics dashboard will prove useful in tracking the “virality” of my shared links. Sadly, your shortened URLs still share their namespace with other bit.ly users, so your domain will still be suffixed by a five-character reference.

However, other than vanity and analytics, there are good reasons for employing a custom domain for your shortening your URLs.

Why use a custom domain?

In recent months, there’s been much discussion on the impact short URLs are having on the long-term stability of the web; notably by weakening the web with centralised hyperlinks, reducing transparency, introducing unwelcome interstitials and providing opportunities for phishing attacks.

Delicious creator Joshua Schacter suggests some publishers should offer their own shortening services to mitigate some of the negative circumstances of shortening.

Indeed, we’ve recently seen brands such as Flickr, TechCrunch, WordPress and Google offer short URLs such as flic.kr, tcrn.ch, wp.me & goo.gl.

For such prominent brands, content publishers and even prolific Twitter users, bitly.Pro offers a useful form of transparency and trust to users clicking on shortened links.

Though the service doesn’t address the problem of centralization of links, it’s a step in the right direction. For those who demand more control, installing a hosted URL shortening app may be more appropriate.

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The twist on .tel is that it’s designed to store information directly in DNS records, rather than being hooked up to a web site. You can see how this works in their simulator; the basic idea is that you store information like your address and your IM contacts right in the DNS record, and anyone can do a lookup on your .tel domain to find them. With specialized applications, this information can be pulled right into your address book.

Today is the opening of the “Sunrise” launch period, when companies with trademarks can pay $400 to lock up their .tel address. In February we’ll have the “Landrush” launch, open to all but at a premium price of $150 per year, followed by general availability in March at about $20 per year.

Is it worth thinking about a .tel domain name for your web working efforts? Right now, I would say no. There’s a distinct chicken-and-egg problem here: having a .tel directory listing will only be useful in proportion to the number of people with specialized software to use it, and there’s not much incentive to install and use the software unless .tel gets pervasive. At the moment, Telnic has applications available for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Outlook, and iPhone in beta. I’ll revisit .tel in late March to see how the early sales have gone, but for now, I’m not spending my money with them.

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