Because I use Hootsuite for professional work, I found out this morning they’ve unveiled a new URL shortener. It’s called “hoot-ly” (URL-speak “ht.ly”) and it’s an option to use instead of “owly” (or “ow.ly”).

Why the switch? Hootsuite explains it all here, but to save you the time and labor of clicking it’s basically this: Use “ht.ly” when you want to use Hootsuite’s “social bar” at the top of the page, and use the old “ow.ly” when you want your links to appear without their “social bar”. For those who may not have seen it, anything linked via Hootsuite had a “social bar” at the top that let you forward posts, articles, whatever via Twitter, Facebook, Digg post, or several other options.

So … Is it a good thing that Hootsuite has abandoned this? An option is definitely better than not having the option. Also, this might (might) be fallout from Facebook unveiling the “Like” button. Facebook, as everyone knows, is taking over everything on the web.