No good deed goes unpunished. The URL shortening service pioneered by TinyURL is now being copied by Google and Facebook:

Google ventured into new territory on Monday with the launch of a new URL-shortening service it's calling Goo.gl.

Google's launch comes on the heels of Facebook having quietly launched its own URL-shortening service called FB.me.

Unless the inventors have patents for the idea, the big guys are going to walk over their business as soon as it proves to be popular.

tags: market, patent, control, competition, internet, information, packaging