Libya's protests have raged for a week, and the country is on the brink of an even more violent confrontation between anti-government demonstrators and hired mercenaries commanded by Colonel Gaddafi. The whole world is watching and wondering: How will this affect Bit.ly, the URL-shortening service everyone uses on Twitter?

Cool Web kids are fighting the plague of long Internet addresses "URL shrinkers" — quirky names like TinyURL and Is.gd. One of them, Bit.ly, just raised $2 million. Great news for Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi!