UrlShortener posts

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Open Source

Open source MURLS submits links to multiple shorteners

by Lee Mathews Sep 16th 2009

Still concerned about whether or not your favorite URL shortening service is going to go belly-up and leave you with a pile of broken links? Hedge your bets with MURLS.

The tiny, portable application is plugged in to 28 different services including popular ones like bit.ly, tr.im, is.gd, and tinyurl. Each shortener is selectable in the MURLS options screen, so you can create as few or as many truncated links as you please.

Just double-click any URL in the list view and it's copied to your clipboard for easy pasting into Twitter updates or anywhere else you need to send abbreviated links. By default, the app sorts created links by length - shortest links first.

MURLS can definitely be a useful little app for link sharer -- I just hope this doesn't lead to Twitter updates with a dozen shortened links crammed into the 140.

Tags: bit.ly, is.gd, murls, shorturl, tinyurl, tr.im, truncator, url shortener, UrlShortener

Filed under: Text, Features, Social Software, Analysis

Should Twitter really count URL characters against you?

by Jason Clarke Sep 13th 2009

Tweet URL Length

URL shorteners, while convenient, are bad for the web. They hide the true destination that they are pointing to, giving bad guys yet another tool in their arsenal, while conditioning web users to blindly trust the links they are clicking on. Further, as the debacle with tr.im showed us, URL shortening services aren't necessarily permanent.

It's no coincidence that the rise in popularity of URL shorteners closely mirrors the rise in popularity of Twitter; Twitter's 140 character limit is the special ingredient that makes Twitter so compelling, but it's also what made short URLs valuable. Some of you will say that short URLs are useful for other reasons - for example, in print. True, but Twitter is by far the place they are used most.

So, with a 140 character limit, how could Twitter eliminate URL shorteners? Well, first, let's look at the reason for the 140 character limit in the first place. It was chosen because Twitter expected SMS messages to be the primary way that users would interact with the service. While there are many users using it that way, their numbers are far eclipsed by the number of users using Twitter on its native web site, or using one of the plentiful Twitter client apps that are available for both desktop computers and mobile phones.

Tags: character limit, character-limit, CharacterLimit, client apps, client-apps, ClientApps, limit, magic number, magic-number, MagicNumber, Mobile Phones, Mobile-Phones, MobilePhones, short messages, short urls, short-messages, short-urls, ShortMessages, ShortUrls, sms messages, sms users, sms-messages, sms-users, SmsMessages, SmsUsers, twitter, twitter character limit, twitter-character-limit, TwitterCharacterLimit, url, url shortener, url-shortener, UrlShortener

Filed under: Utilities, Web services

J.mp is Bit.ly in new, shorter clothes

by Jay Hathaway Sep 5th 2009

Bit.ly dominates the URL shortener market due to its position as the default URL shortener on Twitter, but its features also measure up well against competitors. One area where Bit.ly loses out, though, is in the length of its base URL. Bit.ly is one more character than tr.im or ow.ly and two more than u.nu. Bit.ly is addressing that (relatively small) weakness by introducing j.mp, which is just a shorter version of the Bit.ly everyone already uses.

J.mp has everything Bit.ly has, except the slot as Twitter default. Link tracking, history and user accounts can all be carried over from Bit.ly just by logging into J.mp with the same username and password. In fact, the two services are so connected that every Bit.ly link can be changed into a J.mp link, just by changing the base URL. If you really need those two extra characters on Twitter, you should definitely give J.mp a shot.

[via Mashable]

Tags: bit.ly, j.mp, shorturl, tinyurl, truncator, urlshortener

Filed under: Utilities, Web services, web 2.0

Lessn offers an easy way to create your own URL shortener

by Jay Hathaway Aug 20th 2009

With all the drama around brand-name URL shorteners, a lot of blogs have advised people to skip the big guys and create their own. Easier said than done, though, right? Well, maybe not: Lessn, a service from brilliant designer Shaun Inman (who also developed the Fever feed reader), makes getting a personal shortURL as simple as possible. All you need is some server space where you can throw up some PHP and MySQL.

All you have to know how to do to set up Lessn is enter some login info in a php config file and upload the whole package to your server. After that, you're good to go. You can put in your full URL, and Lessen will give you a short one for it. Then, whenever you want to use your shortener, you can click the included bookmarklet. It might be a lot more work than just using Bit.ly, but having your own shortlinks on your own server means that you don't have to risk a service shutting down and leaving you with dead links.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: DIY, lessn, shauninman, tinyurl, url-shortener, urlshortener

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Productivity

Bit.ly: URL shortener with built-in tracking

by Jay Hathaway Jul 15th 2008

URL-shortening services are plentiful these days, but they're not all equal. There are a few key features we're looking for in our ideal URL-shrinker. We want a bookmarklet, to avoid needless copy-pasting. We want a short base URL for easy Twittering. There's also the ability to custom-name your URLs, so you can tell them apart and they make sense to the people you're sending to. Bit.ly has all of this and more.

Bookmarklet? Check. Short base URL? Check. The only shorter one we've seen is is.gd. Custom naming? Sure thing. But the real kicker is Bit.ly's unique feature: it tracks how many clicks your link gets, and shows you the referrers those clicks are coming from. If someone else has made a different Bit.ly address for that same URL, you can see that, too. Don't be surprised if you see more and more Bit.ly links popping up soon, it might be the best out there right now.

Tags: Bit.ly, link sharing, LinkSharing, TinyURL, URL shortener, UrlShortener

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