Bre.ad URL shortener provides food for thought

Although it has yet to launch a new URL shortener is already proving the toast of the fashionable set by attempting to ‘link links’ to charities and good causes.

At the time of writing a visit to Bre.ad’s web address reveals little more than a holding page, but the people behind it clearly know a thing or two about PR. Lady Gaga is an early adopter, we’re told, and Mashable’s Ben Parr – granted an inside peek – is obviously a fan.

Bre.ad is a URL shortener along the lines of tinyURL.com. Unlike tinyURL.com however, Bre.ad has been created with the Facebook and Twitter generation very much in mind. The idea is that if you want to share something with a friend you publish or send them a Bre.ad short link simply by typing Bre.ad/ in front of the URL in the page address bar. Followers who click on your link will first see a billboard – or ‘toast’ – before being automatically redirected to the target link after five seconds.

The toast is entirely of your own making or (according to Mashable’s Parr) you can use someone else’s. Bre.ad suggest you use it to recommend a favourite charity or your own website. It is not, they state firmly, advertising. Toasts are sized 720 x 300 pixels and feature a message and (up to) two images. Friends who don’t want to see your toast can click on a ‘continue’ button in the top right hand corner and will be taken straight to the destination page.

Parr points out that the advantage of a ‘toast’ over a straight banner ad is that the toast represents a personalised recommendation from someone you trust. The service is designed around the needs of friends sharing information. It takes little imagination however, to see how this might quickly be adopted by popular brands and among professional groups communicating with each other online.

Neither Bre.ad nor Mashable provide details of a firm launch date.

 

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