YouTube has launched its own URL shortening service, using the .be domain as a prefix to link to online YouTube videos.

Dot be is Belgium (no YouTube is not moving); a registered agent has been marketing the domain for broad Internet use since 1999.

Using the new naming protocol, Youtu.be will tell users that a link with the prefix — followed by a typical alphanumeric YouTube video path  address — opens a YouTube video directly when clicked.

Because the link contains the video ID, developers can now try some new ideas with video online, things like showing thumbnails, directly embedding the video, or tracking how it is spreading in real-time.

Some developers are already calling for more features, functions and tools, such as adding support for rel=shortlink, so clients can automatically detect the links without having to rely on third party shortening services….

…Such as this link to the YouTube blog, where more information on the new shortening service is posted:

http://snipurl.com/tt015.

Google has a similar service, a proprietary shortener it says has added security and site indexing features.