joechung said:

If you're going to enable sharing links on Twitter, you should use a URL shortening service via an API like bit.ly's:

http://code.google.com/p/bitly-api/

They are using their own URL shortening service? Isn't http://ch9.ms/8 short enough for you?

 

Btw, I think the OP was under the impression that the text after the link is supposed to be part of the URL, which is isn't. The link is just http://ch9.ms/8, and it works fine.