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Hitch.ly — Turn any URL into a phone number you can call or text
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bryan s arnold
I absolutely love the idea! Online marketers are gonna go crazy with this. Just a great concept.
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What's an example of an instance where displaying a 10 digit number to a potential customer is better than showing them a url? I would think remembering (or just typing in) a url is much easier to remember than an arbitrary 10 digit number. Not trying to bash, just curious what your use-case is here.
@nemrow just think of long URLs, not just name.com - for example:
Retail Products: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product...
Apps: https://itunes.apple.com/en/app/...
E-Commerce products: http://www.qvc.com/Laura-Geller-...
Video:
or even better, take people to app deep-links:
eBay://launch?itm=360703170135
Interesting idea. I wonder how many people will call the numbers expecting it to be a phone call and not even realize that they're being redirected to a URL. What happens when they call from a fixed phone or "unsmartphone" or skype?
@amitsonawane Cool idea. I'm guessing all URLs sent by text are unique, so you can associate a click to each user's phone number?
@alangarrec @amitsonawane that is correct! the system will detect the type of phone and deliver the URL in the best form. Yes, you can associate a unique click to a phone number as well as associate a phone number with a unique, trackable link. Think of it like a Bit.ly for the real world - phone numbers are easy to remember, type than cumbersome links with upper/down case letters and numbers.
@mcocaro - can you tell us about Hitchly and the story behind it?
How often was this issue coming up in your day to day that you decided to build this?
What was the development process like?
@bentossell Absolutely! - When you are a big company, you have the luxury of doing brand-based advertising but when you are doing Direct Response you don't have many options out there to make the life of users easier and still track them like you do with online advertising. We were inspired by QR codes, and came up with the idea of why not "calling the internet" using phone numbers? Each phone number is unique and every cellphone can make them. Magic for the internet. This product was the result of many problems we've experienced first hand, like searching an app in the app stores (too clumsy), or a product on ecommerce/marketplaces. At the end, we realized the problem was that sharing online assets offline was somehow an art with no tools around it. Hope you enjoy it and any feedback you have, send it our way! we are still in beta and making improvements as we go along. Cheers!