Some users may have noticed that yesterday we rolled out some upgrades to the bit.ly history system.  In addition to being significantly faster, it allows for some additional features we think you’ll enjoy. 

One of the first things you may notice is the addition of an edit button next to titles in your history display.  This allows you to personalize the title for any link you’ve shortened.  Any changes you make will only appear in your history listing, so feel free to change titles to anything you like in order to make them more recognizable and personally useful.

Another change is that custom names (keywords) are now displayed along side the history entry.  This means you won’t have to do any extra work to remember which bit.ly custom name points to which bit.ly short url when you want to look at your statistics.

It’s worth noting that this history system works a bit differently than the old system.  Under the old system, if you shortened the same URL multiple times, we would simply move your old entry to the top of the list chronologically (we would never allow multiple history entries for the same link).  The new system acts a bit more like an event log (or your browser history) in that shortening the same URL multiple times will result in multiple history entries which will remain in their original chronological order unless you decide to delete them from your history.  You’ll always receive the same short URL for any long URL you shorten however.  There are a few places, such as custom name creation and certain sidebar/sharing uses which currently create multiple history entries for things that are really a single shortening even.  We’ll be working out those kinks over the next day or so, so please be patient.

The new history system that’s just been rolled out will allow us to continue to add some interesting and useful features in the coming weeks, so as always, stay tuned.

Update: bit.ly no longer offers the file upload functionality described below.

On another note, a few weeks ago we added the ability to upload and post media files directly through the bit.ly interface without having to leave the site.  Based on user feedback, we’ve upgraded the interface in order to make it easier to upload both photos and videos.  To use this new feature, simply click on “Share a File” in the bit.ly URL shortening bar.  Your file will automatically be turned into a bit.ly link, complete with all the tracking you’re used to receiving from your other bit.ly links.