The need to shorten URLs arose many years ago when people started to create free web sites on popular services such as Geocities (owned by Yahoo and now discontinued… R.I.P.) and Xoom. The web addresses given by these services were long and unwieldy, almost impossible for people to recall. And, thus, the shorten URL services were born.
Nowadays, however, people shorten the URL primarily for micro blogging; eg. Twitter posts. Most of the services listed below require no sign up which means you can get a shortened URL in a few seconds – simply provide the longer version and have the service decrease the length substantially.
Sponsored Links
By the way, not only is the www prefix is removed, but the entire web address is changed and herein lies a little disadvantage in shortening your URL.
bit.ly
The default URL shortener used by Twitter makes bit.ly the most popular service for decreasing the length of a long web address.
bit.ly
TinyURL.com
The custom alias feature option on TinyURL lets you create (to a certain degree), the shortened form of a long URL you’ve submiited. How does that help? You can come up with user-friendly URLs such as tinyurl.com/short-url-service which is a short address for this page.
TinyURL.com
Ow.ly
Requires you to decipher the two words of RECAPTCHA before you can get the shortened URL.
Ow.ly
budurl
Analytics for your web site in addition to the feature of shortening URLs. You need to sign up for an account (not free, at the time of writing). Not worth the effort and the money if you just want to shorten URLs quickly.
budurl
Tiny
Quickly convert a long URL into a tiny one using the aptly named service.
Tiny
Dot.tk
Dot.tk will choose a domain name or ask you to do so (only in case of availability). Provide the URL you want to shorten, decipher the CAPTCHA puzzle and get your customized domain.
Dot.tk
is.gd
Compress that long web address using is.gd. Enter one in the field and hit the button.
is.gd
cli.gs
Create short URLs and also take advantage of web site analytics offered by this service.cli.gs
Google url shortener
Available only for Google products and not for the general public. The hallmarks of this service are stability, security and speed.
Google url shortener
j.mp
J.mp is actually an offshoot of the popular Bit.ly URL shortening service. It helps you save a couple of characters off a Twitter post.
j.mp
Clicky.me
You need a Clicky web analytics account to use the service, which, in my opinion, is a good idea because it thwarts spammers. URL shorteners like u.nu and tr.im have been closed due to excessive abuse. Anyway, the main advantage of using Clicky.me is the extensive amount of data you get from visitors after they arrive at your web site.
Clicky.me
Snipurl
Simple and easy way to convert your long URLs into short ones.
Snipurl
NotLong.com
Notlong.com also gives you a password through which you can get stats for the given URL.
NotLong.com
sn.im
Powered by SnipURL service (above) – gives you a slightly shorter URL.
sn.im
SimURL
SimURL shortens the URL and also helpfully shows a screen capture of the page. Nice!
SimURL
Yourls
With the help of Yourls, you can run your own URL shortening service! Since it’s developed in PHP you can get it to work on almost all servers. A WordPress plugin is also available.
Yourls
doiop
Submit your long URL, decode the two words and get a shortened web address.
doiop
W3T.org
The Advanced option lets you choose a custom name in the shortened URL. Check it out – works well.
W3T.org
Metamark Shorten Service
Gives you the ability to have a custom short URL with a privacy code.
Metamark Shorten Service
Moourl.com
Beef up (pun intended) your online marketing efforts with a smaller URL… simply Moo it! Moourl.com will milk the web address you provide shortening it considerably.
Moourl.com
Some more URL shortening services
 Snipr |
 Shorl |
 URLcut |
 Short Links |
 6URL.com |
 YEP that URL! |
 lnk.in |
 TightURL |
 Digbig |
 HEX!O |
 Cortalink.com |
 Shorten Website |
 Motigo ShortURLs |
|||
Decreasing the length of a web address may be good for micro-blogging (eg: Twitter), but this practice should be avoided for all other scenarios as there are some very clear disadvantages of shortening URLs.
