URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) may be made substantially shorter in length and still direct to the required page. This is achieved by using an HTTP Redirect on a domain name that is short, which links to the web page that has a long URL.
For example, the URL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening has been shortened to
http://bit.ly/urlwiki and
http://tinyurl.com/urlwiki. This is especially convenient for messaging technologies such as Twitter, Identi.ca, and debate.org which severely limit the number of characters that may be used in a message. Short URLs allow otherwise long web addresses to be referred to in a tweet. In November 2009, the shortened links on one URL shortening service were accessed 2.1 billion times.
Normally, a URL shortening service will use the top-level domain of a country that allows foreign sites to use its extension, and is a common ending in the English language, such as .ly (Libya), to redirect worldwide using a short alphanumeric sequence after the provider's site address in order to point to the long URL.
Another use of URL shortening is to disguise the underlying address. Although this may be desired for legitimate business or personal reasons, it is open to abuse and for this reason, some URL shortening service providers have found themselves on spam blacklists, because of the use of their redirect services by sites trying to bypass those very same blacklists. Some websites prevent short, redirected URLs from being posted.
URL shortening services are experiencing a renaissance in the age of
Twitter.
When every character counts, these services reduce long URLs to tiny
forms. But which is the best to use, when so many are offered and new
ones seem to appear each day? Below, issues to consider and a breakdown
of popular services, including recommendations and services to avoid
(the new DiggBar being one of these).
There are a number of reasons why people are using URL Shorteners:
- Fixing Links - Original links may be too long to fit on a
single line in an email message, causing some email clients to wrap
them, making the link unusable.
- Beautifying Links -Original links are long and ugly - a shorter one looks better in email or IM messages.
- Space requirements - Twitter messages only allow 140
characters - long URL's won't fit, or don't allow enough explanatory
text to accompany a shared link.
- Spam and Phishing - Spammers sometimes use URL Shorteners to
disguise the true destination of a link. They can claim it will take a
reader to one destination, when if fact it goes to another. This can
make it more difficult for spam filters to recognize spam messages, and
can also fool users into falling for a phishing scheme.
- Link Tracking - Individuals and marketers who are sharing
links, often like to know how many people are clicking their link, or
know what site people are clicking from.
This is the fifth best for your web url.
1.
http://goo.gl
Google needed a url shortener for its own products where we knew the
shortener wouldn’t go away. We also wanted a shortener that we knew
would do things the right way (e.g. 301/permanent redirects), and that
would be fast, stable, and secure.
2.
https://bitly.com
bitly is available via our website, browser extensions,
mobile web, and numerous third-party tools integrated with our open
public API. All links shared via
bitly allow users to view complete, real-time traffic and analytics data.
bitly
also powers more than 10,000 custom short URLs and offers an enterprise
analytics service that helps web publishers and brands grow their
social media traffic.
3.
http://tinyurl.com
It's the first URL Shortener to gain wide popularity. Started in 2002 by
Kevin "Gilby" Gilbertson, TinyURL remains the single most popular URL
Shortening service, with a claimed 145 million links shortened to date,
and 1.5 billion clicks per month (nearly 600 per second) on their
shortened links (as of January, 2009).
4.
http://is.gd
is.gd is a free service for shortening web addresses and other URLs.
This is useful in many circumstances e.g. when sending an address to a
phone via SMS and character count is limited.
5.
http://ow.ly/url/shorten-url
The popular URL shortening service.Ow.ly is useful to your social media-connected readers, and to you. The short URLs are easily shareable on Twitter, like any URL shorteners’, and the toolbar puts Tweet and Share buttons in easy reach, which can score you some retweets, Diggs, and Stumbles, which may lead to more traffic for you.
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