This morning, it turns out, t.co, twitter’s own URL shortner links were not working. The browser responded with ‘Lookup failed’, while wget said this:
Resolving t.co (t.co)... failed: nodename nor servname provided, or not known. wget: unable to resolve host address `t.co'
So I tried to look into what was going on. This potentially meant that almost all of the millions of links being shared on twitter were rendered useless. Here’s what whois revealed:
Domain Name: T.CO Domain ID: D740225-CO Sponsoring Registrar: MELBOURNE IT LTD Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 13 Registrar URL (registration services): www.melbourneit.com.au Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited Domain Status: clientHold Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited Domain Status: serverDeleteProhibited Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited Registrant ID: TWITTERREG2012 Registrant Name: Twitter, Inc. Registrant Organization: Twitter, Inc. Registrant Address1: 1355 Market Street Registrant Address2: Suite 900 Registrant City: San Francisco Registrant State/Province: CA Registrant Postal Code: 94103 Registrant Country: United States Registrant Country Code: US Registrant Phone Number: +1.4152229670 Registrant Facsimile Number: +1.4152220922 Registrant Email: domains@twitter.com Administrative Contact ID: TWITTERADMIN2012 Administrative Contact Name: Domain Admin Administrative Contact Organization: Twitter, Inc. Administrative Contact Address1: 1355 Market Street Administrative Contact Address2: Suite 900 Administrative Contact City: San Francisco Administrative Contact State/Province: CA Administrative Contact Postal Code: 94103 Administrative Contact Country: United States Administrative Contact Country Code: US Administrative Contact Phone Number: +1.4152229670 Administrative Contact Facsimile Number: +1.4152220922 Administrative Contact Email: domains@twitter.com Billing Contact ID: MIT_BILLING Billing Contact Name: DBS Billing Billing Contact Address1: 636 Ellis Street Billing Contact City: Mountain View Billing Contact State/Province: CA Billing Contact Postal Code: 94043 Billing Contact Country: United States Billing Contact Country Code: US Billing Contact Phone Number: +1.8669073267 Billing Contact Facsimile Number: +1.6506182574 Billing Contact Email: billing@melbourneitdbs.com Technical Contact ID: TWITTERTECH2012 Technical Contact Name: Tech Admin Technical Contact Organization: Twitter, Inc. Technical Contact Address1: 1355 Market Street Technical Contact Address2: Suite 900 Technical Contact City: San Francisco Technical Contact State/Province: CA Technical Contact Postal Code: 94103 Technical Contact Country: United States Technical Contact Country Code: US Technical Contact Phone Number: +1.4152229670 Technical Contact Facsimile Number: +1.4152220922 Technical Contact Email: domains-tech@twitter.com Name Server: NS1.P34.DYNECT.NET Name Server: NS2.P34.DYNECT.NET Name Server: NS3.P34.DYNECT.NET Name Server: NS4.P34.DYNECT.NET Created by Registrar: INJECTCSR Last Updated by Registrar: MELBOURNE IT LTD Last Transferred Date: Mon Mar 14 22:21:58 GMT 2011 Domain Registration Date: Mon Apr 26 07:50:40 GMT 2010 Domain Expiration Date: Thu Apr 25 23:59:59 GMT 2013 Domain Last Updated Date: Mon Oct 08 05:13:38 GMT 2012 >>>> Whois database was last updated on: Mon Oct 08 05:35:46 GMT 2012 <<<<
See the last line? I’m guessing somebody messed around with DNS settings.
Hopefully the nameservers around the world will pick it up sooner, than later.
But the question is: is there a need for more ’embedded’ URL shorteners, maybe baked into the browsers, kinda along the lines of Mozilla Persona for authentication?
[Update: Just noticed that TNW has already reported this and is trending on HN]
Specks of tech 