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Filed under: Utilities, Features, Web services, Lists

A big list of ways to make Tiny URLs


With all the URL shortening sites that have been popping up lately -- and even services that let you make your own -- I thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at the link-shrinkers we've covered in the past here at Download Squad. Some of them are legitimately useful, while some of them are complete novelties that you'd only break out as a joke. You'll also have to forgive some of our references to getting Rickrolled -- it was a legitimate concern back then! So, without further ado, here's a big list of ways to create very small URLs:

NSFW.in is designed for sharing links that are Not Safe For Work. Its unique feature is a warning page, in case the person you're sharing your link with doesn't want to see it after all.

Bit.ly is still one of the best link shorteners around. It scores points for tracking the traffic to your shortened link, and letting you see if anyone else has made a bit.ly link to the same URL.

U.nu is a fairly recent entry with a super-short base URL, and the added bonus of generating links that are easy to read out loud to someone or type out from scratch.

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Filed under: Internet, Security, Web services, web 2.0

SHUURL provides a safer way to share short URLs


After the whole clickjacking nightmare on Twitter, some of you might be looking for a better way to shorten (truncate) URLs. One good solution is provided by Shuurl.

You can Shuurl at work in the screenshot above. Not only are users provided with a thumbailed image of the destination page, they're also tagged with Web of Trust-style safety icons. The coding is the same as atraffic signal: green means go, yellow means proceed with caution, and red means stop before you get into trouble.

The thumbnails are small enough to be inobtrusive - which coworkers will welcome if you happen to be sharing content that's a bit on the NSFW side of things.

Shuurl is still fairly new, so some additional features I'd like to see aren't there yet - like a bookmarklet and API access for developers.

If you want to simplify the process, a quick right click of the "shorten" text box and you can add a search keyword for it in your favorite browser for quick truncations.

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