Domain ownership dates back to 2006

Apple has turned to a long-owned domain in order to shorten links in Ping tweets, reports say. When Twitter integration was first introduced to Ping, it generated full-sized URLs; Apple is then said to have briefly enabled Twitter's own shortening service, t.co. Apple has now switched to itun.es, employing a domain it has actually controlled since December 2006.

Over the weekend, Apple also upgraded Ping with playlist creation and sharing functions. The social network has struggled to attract attention. While it quickly gained over 1 million subscribers on launch, it has since mostly faded from public view. Apple recently offered a preview of an unreleased Michael Jackson song through Ping in order to draw more subscribers.

by MacNN Staff