A URL Shortener is a piece of software that takes a long URL or internet address and makes it smaller. For example, the following is a link to a posting on my blog.
https://dougpete.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/exploring-the-conversation/
That's a pretty long URL to read to someone and have them get it correct. With services like Twitter where you're limited to 140 characters, you can use up your quota just typing the address. If I took the same URL and ran it through a shortener like bit.ly, it becomes:
You've got to agree that's considerably shorter.
There are many shortening services available for your use. Some of the legitimate ones that I've found and used are listed below. Got a favourite? Let me know.
Service | URL |
Binged.it | not available for the public yet - but some links are coming from it - presumably Microsoft |
bit.ly | http://bit.ly |
budurl | http://budurl.com/ |
Doiop | http://doiop.com/ |
http://goo.gl | |
Hootsuite | http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url |
Huffington Post | huff.to for shortening coming from Huffington Post |
is.gd | http://is.gd/ |
ity.im | http://ity.im/ |
j.mp | http://j.mp |
Mashable | on.mash.to for shortening coming from Mashable |
McAfee | http://mcaf.ee/ |
Moourl.com | http://moourl.com |
Make Use Of | muo.fm for shortening coming from Make Use Of |
National Post | natpo.st for articles from the National Post |
Ning | uses ning.it for messages coming from Ning |
Posterous | http://post.ly/ |
Sharethis | shar.es from a button you can install on your website |
Snipurl | http://snipurl.com/site/index |
SNSAnalytics | http://w.sns.ly/ |
Stumbleupon | http://su.pr/ |
Uses t.co as a service from Twitter itself | |
TINY | http://tiny.cc/ |
tiny.ly | http://tiny.ly/ |
TinyURL | http://tinyurl.com/ |
Tweetburner | http://tweetburner.com/ |
WordPress | wp.me from a WordPress site |
YouTube | youtu.be sharing from the YouTube site |