Top URL Shorteners

Any constant Twitter user knows the value of a URL shortener, because some of the most fascinating links don’t conform to the 140-character restriction of many micro-blogging services. But some of the best URL shorteners are overshadowed by the titan, TinyURL.

Below I’ve compiled a list of the nine most popular URL shortening services, ordered by unique monthly visitors (data provided by Compete).

Each service results in a shorter URL anywhere from 17 to 25 characters, and I thought it was also interesting to note what countries of origin some of the domain suffixes come from. For instance, the very short moniker “is.gd,” required registration of the domain “is” with Grenada registrars.

Some URL shorteners are more feature-laden than others, so I marked them with these abbreviations:

• C = Custom. Service allows you to provide a custom sequence at the end of the shortened link, rather than an arbitrary/random assortment of numbers and letters.
• P = Private. You can protect links with a password, so only a select few can access the content.
• T = Tracking. Site provides tracking data about link traffic: who, when, how many (etc.) people click your link. (Some sites require login/registration to access tracking data.)
• A = Autocopy. A simple, but great feature. Once a short URL has been created, it’s automatically copied to your clipboard, so you’re ready to paste it. (SnipURL doubles this, by also auto-pasting your clipboard into their page to begin.)
• D = Directory. If a user adds something to the end of the short URL, the service adds it to the end of the destination URL. (If blog.mediasocialist… links to blog.mediasocialist.com, then blog.mediasocialist.com/2009/02/12/top-url-shortenerstop-url-shorte… links to this blog post.) Great for shortening a really long root directory.
• S = Search. The service lets you search through links users have shortened. Can be a nice gague of what’s popular online.

*Includes traffic from snipr.com and snurl.com.

Most important to note, there are several great URL shorteners other than TinyURL. Most are shorter, offer tracking capabilities, and some have additional features.

For me, brevity and beauty are key, so tr.im is my new favorite. It shaves six characters off a TinyURL link, and has a really cleverly appropriate name, along with a pretty web design. It also allows you to post directly to Twitter from their page, and track link traffic without logging in (although you can also create an account).

If you’re less concerned with absolute minimal characters used, SnipURL (also Snipr and Snurl) offers the most features of the top URL shorteners, and is definitely worth a look.

Perhaps the coolest thing I’ve run into in the last couple of days, though, is a feature that reverses what these shortening services do. Sometimes it’s annoying to not know where a shortened URL will take you until after you click it. In fact, URL shorteners can be a great way to spread malicious links. “Long URL Please” is an extension for Firefox that automatically replaces most short URLs with their final destination. That way, we can all take advantage of short URLs in our microblogs, but have the convenience of knowing whether or not a link is worth clicking.

Posted in Micro-blogging, Reviews |
Tagged with bit.ly, budurl, cli.gs, Compete, is.gd, Long URL Please, snipurl, tiny.cc, tinyurl, tr.im, tweetburner, Twitter, twurl