Top 5 URL Shorteners and How They Help You

Share Thu, May 3, 2007

Useful Tips

Long URLs are simply hard to pass along. The links tend to sometimes break in email, are harder to verbalize in a conversation, and they are difficult, or in some cases near impossible to remember.

For example, let’s say you want to pass along this piece of news to your friends about how the ‘Iphone will test loyalty of cellular customers’- Which you can visit with this long URL…

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/04/24/loyalty/index.php?lsrc=mwrss

…which I will need to shorten to something more digestible.

Now, there are a plethora of URL shortening services out there – the majority of them free, but most of them not bringing anything unique to the table.  Here are some notable exceptions with useful value-added features in place:

#1 Choose your own page name with Doiop

doiop Top 5 URL Shorteners and How They Help You  

What Doiop allows you to do is actually define your own keyword (In this case I used loyalty) so you can give your short link some context, something simple which many URL shortening services just don’t offer.

Result: Link shortened to – http://doiop.com/loyalty

#2 Create instant short URLs using bookmarklets and enjoy previews with TinyURL

tinyurl Top 5 URL Shorteners and How They Help You

TinyURL is probably the most famous of all the URL shortening sites out there, but many people don’t take advantage of two key features they offer.  The first - Incorporating a one-click bookmarklet on your browser, so you never have to visit the site to shorten a URL, just click a button on your browser and it’s done!

The second is a preview feature.  This tells anyone who clicks on the preview link – what exactly they are accessing, so there are no surprises on the other end.

Result: Link shortened to http://tinyurl.com/2ck97a

#3 Tag short URLs using multiple keywords with ReadthisURL

 readthisurl Top 5 URL Shorteners and How They Help You

Just like Doiop, this allows you to add context to your shortened URLS but this time by allowing users to tag it with multiple keywords. 

Result: Link shortened to http://readthisurl.com/iphone+loyalty

#4 Create pronounceable with MemURL.com

memurl Top 5 URL Shorteners and How They Help You

Too lazy to think of a keyword but still want some form of coherence for your shortened URLs?  memURL will create a mnemonic link which is easy to pronounce (but doesn’t mean anything).  memURL also comes with a bookmarklet feature for one click shortening.

Result: Link shortened to http://memurl.com/luviru

#5 Track your short URL traffic and stats with dwarfURL.com

 dwarfurl Top 5 URL Shorteners and How They Help You

On top of a basic URL shortening system, DwarfURL allows users to track statistics and traffic of these shortened URLs.  Perfect for tracking how many people actually visit those links you send them :)

Result: Link shortened to http://dwarfurl.com/e9b5d

A word to the wise here - Like most good things on the Internet, spammers have invaded the URL shortening space -using these services to cover their tracks.  I would apply the same level of caution when clicking on the links – only doing so when you’re sure it comes from a trusted source.

What URL shortening services do you use?  Let us know in the comments!

[tags] url redirection, url shortener, tinyurl, domain [/tags]

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262 Comments For This Post

  1. LcF Says:

    I use urlTea.com, it automatically copies the shorten URL into clipboard. urlTea supports bookmarklets and optional keywords

  2. James Yeang Says:

    Thanks for the tip LcF, I checked it out and urlTea is a very elegant solution indeed :)

  3. rob Says:

    I also like urlTea.com

  4. Ashish Mohta Says:

    Cool find James. I will start using it now.

  5. Chris Reeder Says:

    QurlyQ.com

  6. papajoneh Says:

    Thanks James. cool gadget. I only use the tinyurl. never knew the others. thanks. checking LCF urltea.com too. thanks all. ;)

  7. ismail Says:

    Hi there,

    landing to your page from malaysia bloggers forum.

    Nice article, very helpfully for newbie like me :)

    p/s: this article make me subscribed your rss :)

    cheers

  8. Adrian Says:

    Check out http://traceurl.com

    Traceurl.com does not only track and count accesses to your URLs, but also shows where the accesses came from.

  9. James Yeang Says:

    Adrian & Chris: Thanks for the tips- valuable info indeed
    PapaJoneh and ismail: glad to have helped :)

  10. Coach Says:

    MULTIPLE SNIPPINGS
    Now you can snip many URLs in one go:

    SnipUrl.com

  11. gedax Says:

    hi,
    i suggest to use http://ix.lt

    FREE
    super SHORT
    NEW (all popular tags are available)

    enjoy

  12. Matt Says:

    While they are usefull tools, they are spam enablers and I had to block all comments to sites I’ve worked for, that reference these services as spammers love them.

  13. James Yeang Says:

    Coach & Gedax : thanks for the tips

    Matt:Yeah fully understand… I use those services to email long links to friends and have used them for print classifieds to advertise some property after I made a quick web page in Googlepages.com not so much for blogs

  14. Marcus Lam Says:

    As far i know, the shortest url redirection service is http://dn.vc and it feature like masking and keyword.

  15. Eric Hammond Says:

    I run http://notlong.com/ and have a review of a few of the bigger URL shortening sites (and links to many others) here: http://notlong.com/links/

  16. Sander Says:

    i always use:
    http://www.kurl.us

    pretty fast and verry simple

  17. Tazza Says:

    I recommend http://is.gd/ URL shortener.

    It’s fast and simple, and generates seriously short URLs.

  18. URL Shortening Says:

    I made http://lilurl.us

    It has stats, choosable names, and password protection. It’s free and has been around forever and likely will be as it costs zilch to maintain.

  19. GT Says:

    I use http://xil.in

    It has a firefox search engine plug-in for easy creation of short URLs and supports custom tag features..http://xil.in/john

  20. tds Says:

    I recommend http://plexp.com. It has some original features.

  21. Anonymous Says:

    http://www.bellypath.com/

  22. Joe Says:

    I use url-press.com one of the best I personally think.

  23. Costa Says:

    Cool…

  24. Kyun Says:

    I use fire.to. They have other good names to choose from.

    http://fire.to

  25. Mikkel Hansen Says:

    Another handy url shortener made with php and jQuery, also copies the short url to your clipboard: http://miklos.dk

  26. Joe Says:

    Thanks for the info.

    I use http://www.url9.com

  27. Jaga Says:

    My best is smarturl.eu
    http://smarturl.eu
    ;)

  28. URL Shrinker Says:

    Another great option is http://qicute.com which is free, password-protected, saves your short urls, and lets you choose a special keyword or a random tag.

  29. juicyjugs Says:

    Doiop is the best. Picking your keyword is great.

  30. Shorty Says:

    I use yweb.com – nothing special (though they do hint at future extended features) but the domain itself is quite short (4 letters)
    Besides, since it’s quite new, their URLs still have only 2 digits, like http://yweb.com/9p (which goes to this page)

    Plus, I think the big guy with tattoos who crushes the URLs is funny. But maybe that’s just me.

  31. Ben Says:

    I like these two:
    http://urlsn.com
    http://www.snipurl.com

    The first has an API you can integrate with your website so user-submitted links are shortened.

  32. Jimmy Says:

    I use http://gonext.org

    Free, ad-free, new (all tags avalaible)

  33. Kuki Says:

    best i ever used

  34. Kuki Says:

    http://smarturl.eu/
    forgot to paste link

  35. Julian Says:

    I always use xaddr.com. It has no frills, but users always see a preview page to find out where they are going before they click.

  36. nerodark Says:

    Another tiny URL site which allows you to use your own domains or sub domains.
    http://www.ellix.org

  37. Daniel Says:

    A new site that has a firefox search engine plug-in for easy creation of short URLs, supports custom tag features, and has an API feature – http://urlcover.com

  38. BromptonWeb Says:

    Here another site with a small url for redirect servcie

  39. Andy Maize Says:

    I’ve got all information about url shortener here. Thanks a lot.

  40. Aaron Graves Says:

    I run http://muhlink.org – it’s simple, no-frills. NO ads either. Working on implemented preview as well. No harm in trying it out.

  41. gilber Says:

    4url.cc has spam blocking system.

  42. Graham Says:

    Thanks for the URL shorteners, looking at the rest of your site too.

  43. techniqueal t. Says:

    This is one great collection of URL shorteners! Thanks for blogging about this! =)

  44. Rob Says:

    If I can I’d like to plug the URL shortener service my website runs, urlShort at http://u.mavrev.com

    Currently it offers a simple API for creation via a URL request, a bookmarklet, and the web form with more on the way.

  45. Chucklyn Says:

    We love http://bit.ly though so many of these are so very similar.

    It’s cool to get the newer, less-used ones so you can create common custom URLs now that they’re all offering that as well…

  46. Fred Says:

    http://go2cut.com – another URL shortener with statistics.

  47. Col Says:

    A new one on the scene ins Shrink Link..

    http://www.shrinklink.co.uk

    it has a really easy to remember name, provides a bookmarklet for one click access, lets you track link visits / clicks, and also lets you add customised keywords (aliases) for your links.

    worth a look..

  48. Jason Fox Says:

    http://kissa.be – another URL, mail, text, image shortener with statistics.

  49. ZWKoh Says:

    Nice list. But maybe you people want to try http://ilix.in.

    Besides (1)shortening link without registration, your (2) true link will not be shown on address bar and source code. Which mean, your (3) html source is 100% encrypted, hence protecting your webpage or affiliate link etc.

  50. Jascha Says:

    I think http://tr.im is the best since it has free stats for URLs you shorten and accounts are free. If you use it to promote blog posts etc then the stats are helpful!

  51. Tim Says:

    In my opinion I would use http://xs.md because it is simple and easy to use. Only few clicks and you are done.

  52. tmad40blue Says:

    I use http://is.gd/

  53. jiri Kutil Says:

    Try http://1link.in

    - shorten your long and ugly URLs -
    - put multiple links into one link -
    - protect your links with password -
    - protect multiple links at once -
    - cloak your affiliate links -
    - download files just by one click -
    - register for free and save your links -

  54. Priitq Says:

    I’d add http://shrt.st it has some nice additions like Mac OS Dashboard widget or bookmarklet. Also it is very good looking. Many url shorteners mentioned here are just plain ugly.

  55. Hide URL Says:

    Fast and basic URL Shorhener http://www.wlink.us

  56. Jay Says:

    tiny123.com

    short and sweet

  57. joe Says:

    Yes. I tried some many of them. Now, I use easyuri on easyuri.com, easyuri is so far the fastest url shorting service after so many of them I used. It supports personal keywords. Highly recommended.

  58. Sandra Bullock Says:

    Hi,
    I am madly in love with myurl.us. Its great, simple and gives me a us brand ;).

    All the best,

    Sandra

  59. John Smith Says:

    I tried all of those. Not bad. But I prefer http://easyuri.com. It is fast and allows me to create shorten URL fast with their browser toolbar. I can customize my url name too!!

  60. Tommy Lacroix Says:

    Shall it be of any interest to you and you readers, I collect usage market share statistics of URL shortening services throught my microblogbuzz.com web site. You may find it at http://microblogbuzz.com/stats/urlshorteners/

  61. Wazawoo Says:

    I use Tr.im . it is the shortest one, and it has a bookmarklet that can shorten the current URL and post it directly to twitter!

  62. Jacob Says:

    Tinyurl lets you choose keywords now.

  63. James Yeang Says:

    Thanks for all the feedback guys.
    Jacob – useful to know that TinyURL now supports custom keywords!

  64. Nate Says:

    I use:

    http://min.im

    no pretense, no fuss, simple.

  65. Felicia Says:

    I have been looking for something to cut down the URL to all my sites. Thank you for the information.

  66. Bartur Says:

    I suggest to try http://gu.ma/ with its interesting feature of adding a comment/description to generated links.

  67. John Says:

    Nice. I tried all of them and found out that easyuri.com is the best.

  68. love it Says:

    Really nice and reliable url shortener.

  69. BromptonWeb Says:

    Here a small on that always up:

    http://1iny.com

  70. Sp00kster Says:

    Thanks, mon!!

  71. borask Says:

    here is a new one with a lot of features:
    http://urlshort.ca
    read the help section to know more about all options

  72. B. Banner Says:

    Another great URL shortener is thurly (http://thurly.net). Works really well and is a very clean design. Also has an API for use in apps.

  73. Andrew Hedges Says:

    If anyone’s interested, I built a Dashboard widget that taps the tr.im API. Find out more here: http://tr.im/trimit

  74. The Virtual Consulting Firm Says:

    Nice List, Thank You for compiling and sharing these URL Shorteners with us all! :)

    We Prefer/Really Like http://twitpwr.com

    Thank you again for compiling and sharing these URL Shorteners with us all! :)

    We hope this all helps and Have a Great Day! :)

  75. Charlie Flowers Says:

    I have tried many of the URL shorteners listed above, but I found them to be a little too long to use in Twitter. I now I use a new URL shortener, called TWTR.US. Why? Because they have:

    - The smallest tiny URL’s available – only 17 characters or less (versus 25 for tinyurl.com)
    - Statistics on how many visits you receive, and how many retweets you get if it’s used on Twitter.
    - 1.6 million tiny URL’s still available
    - They are FREE and you don’t have to register.

    http://twtr.us

  76. url360 Says:

    not forgetting this url shortener

  77. jaba Says:

    Another great URL shortener is thurly http://www.2dwn.com Works really well and is a very clean design. Also has an API for use in apps.

  78. Andrew Hedges Says:

    I’ve built another Dashboard widget that lets you shorten URLs: http://andrew.hedges.name/widgets/#hurler

    This one uses http://hurl.ws as the shortening API. Like http://tr.im/trimit, it automatically pulls the URL from the browser of your choice and copies the shortened URL to the pasteboard when it’s done. I’ve also recently integrated Growl support if you exit Dashboard before the shortening process is complete.

    Enjoy!

  79. Acisherammere Says:

    Was ist das?

  80. Love Says:

    bit.ly
    - allows to track links

  81. Love Says:

    http://bit.ly/

  82. plord Says:

    cli.gs tracker with geo info and analytics

  83. mac Says:

    What about bit.ly?

  84. Ryan Says:

    Ow.ly is short and sweet plus if you use hootsuite.com for twitter posts you get analytics.

  85. JT Howe Says:

    I’ve just started using http://u.nu which, at this point, has the shortest possible URLs out there. I am not sure it would be possible for anyone else to get shorter than them, unless they managed to get a hold of a ccTLD somehow.

  86. Joshua Says:

    http://1url.com is my favorite because it’s the shortest “.com” shortener on the web. I don’t like using anything that’s not a “.com” because their domains are usually linked to remote island nations with extensions that can shut down at any time, as has happened to me before when I used one and I lost all of my links that way. “.com” is just more reliable, period.

  87. purba Says:

    I found a wonderful one on aafter.com. The biggest advantage I enjoyed was that the shorter ones generated did not look like gibberish, they made sense. Also, each could be used independently on a server, so that if one fails, you always have another option.

  88. Matt Says:

    Anyone interested in hosting their own URL Shortener should check out the project I manage, urlShort at http://urlshort.sourceforge.net. We’re aiming to have it include all the good features of URL shorteners, but be free, open-source, and easy to use/setup.

  89. Homredy Says:

    Checkout http://z.pe, they are the shortest with a nice bookmarklet

  90. Seth Webster Says:

    http://nsfw4.me url shortener FTW! It’s great for links that are questionable for people at work… It’s short, allows you to specify keyword, presents a warning to people allowing them to decide whether to continue and lets everyone rate how unsafe for work it is.

  91. Seb2.0 Says:

    I recently wrote a URL shortener service called Twi.tl http://twi.tl. I’d like people to try it out and give me their feedback via Twitter @twi_tl

  92. Mal Says:

    Thank u..is a simple URL shortener..

  93. Malaysian URL Shortening Service Says:

    Try This & Join The Contest!!

  94. Mevlo Says:

    Great article! There are quite a few out there these days. I used to use tinyurl.com, but now I use veeox.com . It beats the outdated look of tinyurl and it’s very simple…

  95. Andi Says:

    ShortGPS.com is a shortener Service for postal addresses. So if you wil post a location in Twitter or Facebook, how to make it? Google Maps and than a URL shortener?? — No!

    Try ShortGPS. You can remove the marker and fit the scale. If everything is fine you can copy the shorten link.

  96. Mike Newman Says:

    3.ly is the shortest url shortener EVER!

  97. Makla Says:

    Hi.
    I use qurl.cc
    You can track your visitors (you can see their cities!) and it remembers your socalled “qURLs”. Really nice :)

    Regards.

  98. Stratos Says:

    I love http://3.ly – use it all the time- apparently it’s the world’s shortest!

  99. Bill Ortell Says:

    Wow, nice list guys… we just opened our doors a few days ago and we’re getting great reviews :), check us out! scrnch.me ;) free and premium accounts, with (ahem!) more features than you can shake a stick at.

  100. Sangram Says:

    I use http:\\is.gd

    Its the best….
    Can create very short Url….

  101. Carl Says:

    I use Squeerl.

  102. haqu Says:

    After trying to use several popular URL shorteners, I decided to make my own. It is fast and clean, with simple stats.

    http://go2.st

    Feel free to suggest new features and improvements (twitter: @haqu)

  103. Steve Says:

    I think the best new URL shortener is http://farturl.com. It not only shortens your URL, but it inserts an interstitial fart, which is great.

  104. dd Says:

    Shorteners are useful, but they bring additional security problems, since the user can’t properly validate where he/she is going before clicking.

    One of the solutions for this is to use tools to validate the URL before clicking: http://sucuri.net/index.php?page=tools&title=check-url

    Thanks,

  105. hardimORG Says:

    just launched: http://www.short.web.id | shorten your web identity.
    size does matter. this short will satisfied you!

  106. is.gd Says:

    I use: is.gd

    Here is an example of how short a url is. You can test it by pasting it into your address bar: is.gd/15uEI

  107. Mike Says:

    I use http://1url.com because of its simple design and the fact that it’s a “.com” (which I like) and short at the same time.

  108. Artur Says:

    I didn’t see nothing better then http://snick.me/

    It short your URL, measure audience and track Twitter looking for your URL and building rankings on their home page, very cool! They have a nice API and widgets. Oh yes, and actually has two characters to build your URL, example: http://snick.me/0i

    I think that Snick.me is the new generation of URL shortening

  109. asshu Says:

    Great !!!

  110. Alberto Medina Says:

    I personally use http://chs.com.mx

    Short and easy

  111. marty Says:

    http://l.pr is the best URL shortening service. Its got the shortest URLs plus lets you embed your message in the link itself so saves time.

  112. yash Says:

    Nice collection helps me little..

    I’m sharing my loved one ..http://jals.in/

  113. Ismail Asci Says:

    simplest and best url shortening service for me
    http://irt.me

  114. Christopher Webb Says:

    Thanks for the great article. I just started building a new one called tw1t.net, I’ll definitely integrate some of the features described above. The possibilities are really endless, aren’t they. Also I’ve decided to require user registration because I want to reduce spam and be able to group links by user. This will probably cut the number of users down by 90%, but that’s OK. I want quality content linked to… not sure how to patrol that yet though. A friend of mine in Japan has also started a nice little one called lru.jp. Matter of personal preference, really. I think the key is finding a service you trust, because if and when they go down, they’ll take your URLs with them, that’s really why I’m creating my own.

  115. Novian Ternosky Says:

    I’m surprised no one mentioned Metamark.net.
    The urls are pretty short.
    Ex. http://xrl.us/xxxxx

  116. Juan Says:

    I did http://synsa.com for personal use, how ever I like bit.ly

  117. Damien5280 Says:

    While [a href="http://readthisurl.com/"]ReadthisURL[/a] is broken, here’s one I got from reading the New York Times that they use.
    [link]http://bit.ly/[/link]

    I use it all of the time.

    I recently discovered this one too used by major news formats:
    [link]http://is.gd/[/link]

    ~Damien
    [IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/1zdy89v.gif[/IMG]

  118. timothymasters Says:

    i think the list should add http://quu.nu i love its live click stream. only bit.ly has this feature but too difficult to read.

  119. Angelina Coofer Says:

    http://irt.me/ is the most simple one, i m using it.

    urlTea.com doesnt work..

  120. Matthias Says:

    Hi, I am using a new service at http://apu.sh! Live Tracking, stats, custom URLs, passcodes, JSON API and many more should be worth mentioned!

  121. Chris Says:

    punyUrl.com works for me, easy to use and no ads!

  122. Ignas Says:

    Try http://urloo.com For me works great and it’s absolutely free and no ads.

  123. Jibo Says:

    Give http://pra.im a look. It does check against phishing and malware blacklists. Link stats page is great, too. It can generate two types of short URLs: http://7a95bk.pra.im or http://pra.im/7a95bk

  124. SLB Says:

    Hello, I’m looking for an url shortener like tr.im, where i could set up an account and handle all my shortened url from a control panel. What could I use now since tr.im doens’t work anymore? Thanks

  125. SLB Says:

    http://bit.ly/ looks like be able to do the trick

  126. psp games Says:

    hey, just looking for some shortner and cloaker , thanks for giving top 5 ones.

  127. Erin Says:

    You should really really try the URL shortener at http://www.aafter.com. I was thoroughly impressed. It’s a new generation service that provides you not one but a number of fail safe tiny urls from your original link!

  128. Kevinol Says:

    A new promising URL Shortener is also http://ux.lv with trackings, preview, twitter and api support.

  129. Anirudh Singh Verma Says:

    doiop turned out to be awesome ! thanks !

  130. Ankit Mehta Says:

    I use http://nee.im Its really small….

  131. Paco Says:

    I have found an awesome new url shortner website. it has something i have not seen in all the others and that is the ability to shorten multiple URLs at a time. you can check it out if u wanna, its the only one i use. http://myurlz.com

  132. BB Says:

    Hi, please try this multiple URL shortener:
    http://0xbb.us
    It’ll shorten many links into one page, and provide visit count!
    It will work perfectly when you want to share many links at once,
    especially for contents like news, pictures….

    I hope you find it useful! ^^

  133. planetMitch Says:

    I’ve found one that not only shortens, but brands your site – and that is Pretty Link Pro – granted it is a wordpress plugin, but for bloggers, why not have your own blog be the shortened url? Hopefully, your blog url is short in the first place right? :)

    Check out my blog post about it – (notice my shortened URL with my blog name included) http://blog.planet5d.com/jtr 7 Reasons You Must Use Pretty Link Pro on Your WordPress Blog

  134. sherwin Says:

    This is great for my website whose pages has very long urls.

  135. James Says:

    http://2gb.me

  136. John Hughes Says:

    I use http://foodrl.com for my blogs and articles on food and restaurants.

  137. escafeld Says:

    9 of the shortest url shorteners can be found here ..

    http://x.vu/a1

  138. Nice Sharing Says:

    Also check out http://www.nicesharing.com which allows you to combine several URLs into a single short URL. It’s really useful if you want to add background music to a Picasaweb or Flickr slideshow. Or just see 2 sites together with a single URL.

  139. K9696 Says:

    I use http://dot.tk/ it give u anyname u want then .tk!!!

  140. mike Says:

    i use http://www.lil.io
    because i can earn money with this shortener. thats simple and fast

  141. Matt Says:

    Better yet, host your own with the just released urlShort 2.0.0, which offers many of the features of popular short URL services like bit.ly in a free, open source package. http://mavrev.org/urlshort

  142. Patrick Says:

    You may get a real funny shortened url. A guy got his url shortened to Fukkr. Read on tweetmeme http://rep.ly/uhel

  143. maurice Says:

    hi! check my project smrls! small urls for the masses ;)
    it allows anyone to create a url shortener using free .tk domain.
    give it a try and let me know what you think! thanks!

  144. Web Development Company Says:

    We made one for asianetindia.com auto twitting, but later made it open access http://bz2.in

  145. maurice Says:

    haha.. and then i forgot to mention the url ;) http://smrls.net/ it is! :)

  146. NexNos Says:

    http://Lymme.com is a very good url shortener for tracking easily and watching your links.

  147. Perry Says:

    Thexyz.org is a great easy to use link shortening service that has vast ad network.

  148. Gamer Says:

    Hi can you tell me if these services mask/hide the original referrer?

  149. Louise Says:

    Just recently found out about http://subdomaindirect.com. What really attracted me about http://subdomaindirect.com are:-

    1) URL Masking = great for affiliate programs, I never lost a sale since.

    2) URL Rotators service (add unlimited urls on a single shortened subdomain)

    3) Path forwarding.

    4) Traffic Analysis (by time, country, unique/raw visits).

    5) They even allow unlimited number of POP3 email addresses on the shortened subdomain.

    6) Eight choices for in their network quatz.net, urigate.com, uriway.com, urlway.com, snapify.net, urliz.net, wobe.biz, snipify.net. (from their website)

    It looks okay, give it a try.

  150. marko Says:

    try it ;D really nice and been stable for years

  151. Sebastian Says:

    Another good and simple one is http://ss.ly

  152. Christy Says:

    I highly recommend you to use u2t.in URL Shortening site. Because, their tool generates a short URL and you will be able to post it directly to Twitter and other Social Bookmarking sites.

  153. mark Says:

    try using urldetour.com it has tons of keywords because it is still relatively newand not many people know about it.

  154. GetAFree tk Says:

    I use .tk

    Can’t get shorter than that, and it’s easier then eating pie.

    GetAFree.tk

  155. Andy Says:

    I use http://microURL.eu its simple really short and you can use an optional name.

    ANdy

  156. Roark Says:

    I think the best url shortening service is kxk.me, love to see the logo :P that’s why!

  157. Bill B Says:

    I created a URL shortening service, http://cru.ms that’s pretty good. Has good stats, one-click to Ping.fm or Twitter, and there are some pretty neat advanced features, API.

  158. Robert Says:

    I would recommend the website http://Imfy.us is free to use and you don’t even have to register!

    “Generate Secure Short Links with Anonymous Referers, Anti-Bot Protection and Unique Thumbnail Previews.”

  159. Paul Says:

    http://onodot.com free cloaking on subdomains

  160. exile Says:

    Very nice with useful statistics url shortener: smal.ly

  161. sima Says:

    i mostly use a site called http://s-ml.info to shorten my urls

  162. sima Says:

    i mostly use s-ml.info to shorten my urls

  163. whats 301 or 302 Says:

    Whats the difference between 301 & 302 redirects?
    http://flib.in/ advertises for 301 redirects…hows this different?

  164. Ezuca Says:

    thanks for this nice post!

  165. Blog Tactic Says:

    What if all those sites closed down?

  166. Erica Says:

    I’ve found another one at: http://www.myurlshortener.com

    and hundered of similar working sites at

    http://www.tinyurlalternative.com

  167. moody Says:

    many of them are okay, but i hate the gui of the most, less is more…
    i like http://ax.ag because i can see a preview of the site

    i hate suprises when i get encoded links … ;-)

  168. mark Says:

    I run http://itshrunk.com
    custom tags
    full stats
    user registration (optional) but allows tag changes or redirection changes
    Optional Popular link directory
    Short to Twitter or Pownce browser bookmarks
    Bulk submissions
    expire dates and password protected links (optional)
    Full API for Webmasters
    Plus a small code snippet to allow webmasters to put short URL service on their site.

  169. Matt Says:

    Try eg3.net seems to be the simpilest and I like that it tries not to send you to a malicious/unsafe site.

  170. Tiny URLs Says:

    I prefer http://www.tinyurls.co.uk, so clean and simple.

  171. Xavier Says:

    Hi,

    Just to let you know about an efficient url shortener I like to use :
    http://xav.cc

  172. Martin Lawrance Says:

    well i always used http://www.thisurl.com. its has every thing
    and easy to use. the best thing that you can manage your own links once you singup.

    Cheers

  173. brad Says:

    I really like http://teeny.me.
    It allows you to create your own short custom name and sign up for a free account to save your link history and track your link with analytics. Very cool.

  174. mark Says:

    http://itshrunk.com now has many domains to choose when shrinking URL’s

    it1.us
    myfav.us
    elink.mp
    myfav.biz
    12ju.mp
    netju.mp

    All of the above work with whatever custom tag you set or are given automatically when you shrink.

    For example if you shrink a URL and get this URL:
    http://itshrunk.com/7fa352

    This URL will also work:
    http://it1.us/7fa352

    Nice feature for twitter or to just personalize your URL’s a little more.

  175. Xavier Says:

    Nice article. I’ve been using bit.ly for a while but, I think I’ll be using http://m0oo.com for a while.

  176. Eddie Tucker Says:

    Hi,

    Great list, I am using bit.ly for some time now, but I want to get even shorter url, so I switched to http://zp.rs. Nice interface, tracks all my hits and it allows you to share your url’s via multiple social media sites, not just Twitter. Not sure if you guys heard of the site, but you can give it a try.

    Cheers,
    Eddie

  177. Rudi bolang Says:

    try http://tinypl.us it’s the other one….simple design….

  178. hsinam Says:

    i am also using a new one http://www.in2s.us ..it got some cool feature like list of url shorten are stored against the login and statistic can be view against the shorten url like how many hits it has got..check it out

  179. Hans Says:

    I use http://Urlz.at
    very fast and simple

  180. Thu Says:

    I use http://bt.dg. It is pretty good. It a. allows custom urls (as in the first suggestion) b. the resulting url is 17 characters.

  181. ben Says:

    http://tinyarro.ws also uses is.gd but has more options including using your own keyword, as well as tracking w/ a free account.

  182. ben Says:

    By the way memurl no longer works because of a php server error.

  183. Matt Says:

    Do other URL shorteners create password secured links like http://eg3.net ?

  184. Jin Says:

    Just discovered that Tiny URL is being used as a phishing site and IM attack propagator.

    Sheesh!

  185. James Yeang Says:

    @Jin: That’s why it’s important to keep safe by turning on safety mode in TinyURL which will show you the source before pushing you to the site.

  186. YoYo Says:

    Hi,

    there is one really short one: http://io.ma.

    Define custom extension, like: http://io.ma/sample.

    cheers
    YoYo

  187. menj Says:

    I am using http://www.7les.com as my official URL shortener :)

  188. Michael Says:

    Hey! http://www.flavr.be is nice too !

  189. dubfan Says:

    My favorite link shortener is http://k.vu/ It’s got the shortest possible domain name, and it just launched so it’s giving out really small links.

  190. Matthew Says:

    Im using my own – http://m-thew/ – just registered that and shortened this url to – http://m-thew.tk/1

  191. Edmunds.com Says:

    You weren’t kidding about unexpected URLs. We just got http://bit.ly/aSSWPe! We certainly didn’t plan it but that’s simply hysterical! Not a good fit with our brand image, but really good for a laugh!

  192. Firmino Says:

    i suggest to use http://1l.to

    very short and quick ^^

  193. bildramer Says:

    http://to./
    I won.
    When linking, you can also use “to/abc”, and links are yet 6-letter. So yeah.

  194. eugenius215 Says:

    I used to ues bit.ly and goo.gl
    but somehow goo.gl won’t open sice today :(

  195. Eze Says:

    To see over 350 URL shorteners visit http://urlshortener.org

    Short URL service owners please submit your site to URLShortener.org

  196. Kaushik Says:

    i have only used bit.ly manually, and goo.gl for feed updates automatically. i was feeling the need for having one shortener on my personal server

  197. Tomáš Klíma Says:

    Yet Another URL Shortener – yau.sh

  198. 7battery Says:

    There are some useful power, I recommend http://www.7battery.com.

  199. Tony Lee Says:

    I tried a web shortner(http://www.short.web.id/to/4399) It didn’t work.
    However tinyUrl and 1url.com both seems to do good.
    http://1url.com/c2s

  200. Jeff Paulson Says:

    I use http://urls.co.za for South African short urls.

  201. sujith m s Says:

    Far better options are there.

    http://bit.ly
    http://goo.gl from Google
    http://fb.me from Facebook

  202. Lead Generation Philippines Says:

    I use bit.ly as my URL Shortener which I often use whenever I would share my thoughts on Twitter. MOst of my friends use them too.

  203. l.pl Says:

    I would like to recommend l.pl shortener which is simple to use, works fast, does 301 redirections and makes URLs as short as possible !

  204. hj Says:

    check out http://www.in2s.us it also one of the best url shortner

  205. Alex Says:

    for me jump.fm is better than bit.ly.
    Multi link is amazing

  206. icarus Says:

    Has anyone tried http://lnks.it? It tries to combine url shortening(tinyurl) and bookmarking(delicious) into one webapp. It’s open source as well. Right now, code is per request basis as they claim, they are still finalizing the codes (???)

  207. Roma Says:

    I use this url shortener

  208. Vijay Says:

    Check http://cutshort.me. It has folder & multi domain options….

  209. Commet Says:

    I use bit.ly

  210. Bryan Says:

    I would promote http://www.short-me.com, a good one too !!

  211. mark Says:

    another great, really powerful…and FREE url shortener is:

    http://www.10r.us

    its a lot more powerful and flexible than bit.ly and allows you to create folders and cross compare different campaigns.

    check it out. http://www.10r.us

  212. Dave Says:

    Urlshorts.info has a URL shortening service.

  213. Moody Says:

    i dont like to use a different link shortener for every single site i use this one http://ob.cx best thing abt it is its simple API

  214. Comyonet.com Says:

    http://comyonet.com is more than just a simple URL shortener or a redirection service. With detailes statistcs, 301 redirects, path forwarding and many more. visit the website for more features. all free.

  215. andyjor Says:

    Shortened URL services are invaluable on services like Twitter where only 140 characters are available – many URL’s

  216. Jorge Says:

    url20.ca uses real world words to generate the links!

  217. Anonymous Says:

    u.to

  218. eddy Says:

    well, i’ll choose http://letsclick.co.cc .
    it’s perfect for me.

  219. wholesale wedding dresses Says:

    certain understated elegance and no-fuss style we think Isla would appreciate. What do you think? Tell us below!

  220. John Says:

    Two thumbs up! http://www.WebURL.Me

  221. Marc Says:

    I use ho.io URL shortener because you can customise the shortener URL. And it’s only two letters! And it’s on 401works.

  222. PHLPN Says:

    Hi, check out our FREE short URL service:

    http://phlpn.es

    This is the first and only short URL service in the Philippines!

  223. Alex Says:

    http://www.2so2.com is pretty cool and you can shorten multiple urls at once

  224. Mark Rosen Says:

    How about this

    1t.gd or iq.gd or it1.us or myfav.biz or myfav.us or 12ju.mp or netju.mp or elink.mp

    Your choice of domain all from itshrunk.com

    Plus you can do many other optional things like:
    1. customize the URL tag
    2. Bulk submit URL’s
    3. password protect a url
    4. have a url expire by a certain date
    5. review 60 days of detailed click stats for every URL

    More choices – Simple interface

    itshrunk.com has been online with uninterrupted service for over 2 years.

    Make it your reliable source for short URL’s and tracking needs.

    Yes I am the owner!
    Thanks,
    Mark

  225. richard Says:

    i use this:

    http://4url.me
    http://twi4.me
    http://bee3.info

  226. Glance World Says:

    Cool find! thanks for sharing….

  227. Brian Says:

    edeems – Create a tiny url and get rewarded

  228. John Says:

    Hiya guys, I found this site http://tvsl.eu, its new but I have found it really useful and its much shorter than any other url shortener I have found i think its something like 20% shorter!

  229. Sergio Malagamba Says:

    I’m using 1U.ro http://1u.ro/ It is very short and with their bookmarklet you are able to post it directly to Twitter.

  230. Mariana Says:

    Nice article! I have lot of url shorteners to try now!
    Thanx!

  231. sunny Says:

    Here’s a new one I’m using these days…
    http://www.tinyguru.com/

  232. Chris Says:

    I use Ur3.us as my link shortener – its dead simple and has some amazing stat options for url shortening. The api is pretty useful – simple and unique and really short links!

  233. Mike Says:

    Hello! i use http://paidly.com – friendliest url shortener!

  234. Big Mike Says:

    I use http://paidly.com – friendliest url shortener

  235. Erez Says:

    There is new site which short your url using more than 10 services once,he called http://www.shortesturl.net
    Enjoy

  236. SkoalJohn Says:

    http://Bu.tt is my favorite URL shortener

  237. For Canada Says:

    Check out http://z2z.ca, a URL shortening service mainly for Canadians.

    4 benefits:

    - We do not shorten redirected URLs
    - Fast, on a fast server
    - No tracking (except for the IP)
    - Canadian

  238. krissy knox Says:

    I use TinyUrl, bit.ly and j.mp for the following reasons:

    TinyURL does exactly what it’s name says — shortens your URL. Therefor, it’s name is easy to remember, and it gives you a very short URL.
    Find TinyUrl at: http://tinyurl.com/

    bit.ly is fantastic in that it not only gives you a shortened URL, but it also gives you many tracking statistics concerning your newly created URL. Each time someone clicks on the URL (link) you provide (the link just created by you using bit.ly), bit.ly will record that your shortened URL has been clicked on. Then results will be immediately displayed on a bit.ly page you have previously created, and just signed in to. This page will tell you how many times your link (as well as your other recent links you’ve created) have been clicked on, and from which countries the readers clicked! bit.ly will also tell you such facts as the total amount of times all of your links (shortened URLs) have been clicked on together in, if I remember correctly, the last 10 days. I believe there are other features to bit.ly, but I can’t state them at present. Because bit.ly tracks in so many ways, it is my favorite URL shortener to use!
    Find bit.ly at: http://bit.ly/

    j.mp is a URL shortener that I just became aware of, and have not had time to review extensively, but it appears to me to work almost identical to bit.ly, and I believe provides the same tracking features as bit.ly. j.mp’s advantage over bit.ly is that j.mp’s shortening results is an even smaller URL (link) than bit.ly’s does! If I find that j.mp has the same features as bit.ly, and that j.mp’s shortening service results in a significantly shorter URL than Bit.ly’s, I will definitely be switching to j.mp, unless I find there is a security issue with j.mp. But I don’t anticipate a security issue, so I’ll probably be using j.mp from now on.
    Find j.mp at: http://j.mp/

    Although I know there are perhaps a few hundred URL shorteners, I’m surprised that your list doesn’t include bit.ly or j.mp, the two I feel are the best URL shorteners.

    Anyway, thank you very much for an excellent article, and for allowing comments. It will help those who are not aware of URL shorteners to now be aware of them. I didn’t know shortened URLs existed until about a year ago — when someone on Twitter told me about them, and told me how to get shortened URLs created and what they were used for. I was grateful I was taught about URL shorteners, because before a year ago, I wasn’t able to post much in any one tweet on Twitter if the tweet contained a URL, bc after I posted the long URL, there wasn’t much room to post anything else. When I was informed about a year ago about URL shorteners, and became very excited, as I was then able to fit a complete thought in each tweet, as well as it’s relavent shortened URL (link) in the tweet. I was very relieved when I was told to use a URL shortener. It makes micro-blogging much easier.

    Thanks for sharing this with us.

    krissy knox
    follow me on twitter:
    http://twitter.com/iamkrissy

  239. James Yeang Says:

    That is an amazing comment, krissy from sometimesithink-krissy.blogspot.com , thanks for sharing your thoughts with us :)

  240. krissy knox Says:

    @James, Thanks! I try to be helpful. BTW, I just found your blog this morning, and I love it!

    krissy :)

  241. Asshu Says:

    Yeah ! i must agree that we can’t forget this article in the near future.It is the 4 year and the article is getting popular day by day.
    I wonder that a blog article as a simple post made occupied the top p[lace in google search .When we try for the URL shortners ,this article gets first.

    I didn’t count the URL shortners stated here. But I guess near about 40 services were listed here.
    Thanks James.

  242. Asshu Says:

    * Sorry ! 3 years

  243. Jonathan Says:

    My favorite URL shortener is http://nik.im

    they provide tons of ways to shorten and their analytics are sooo cool :)

  244. jackli Says:

    We do not shorten redirected URLs
    - – No tracking (except for the IP)

  245. jackli Says:

    i like the blog

  246. Shortz Says:

    Shortz.me for me.

  247. Tim Says:

    Try http://Bu.tt – The URL shortener that kicks it!

  248. Aaron Yeagle Says:

    I built my own URL Shortener and want to contiue to improve the services it provides. Many of these comments are very inciteful and, in reading your article, gave me some ideas on possibly integrating some of those features … cuz honestly, using all of those sites for just one link seems a misuse of time. Their cool things to do, but who has the time?

  249. Asshu Says:

    @Aaron Yeagle
    What is your the name and URL of your URL shortening service?

  250. Chris Says:

    Before I was using cli.gs however I don’t know why my account got deleted. =(

  251. Globinch Says:

    few more new services
    http://www.globinch.com/2010/06/08/make-long-hyperlinks-to-short-best-url-shortening-services/

  252. Patrick Says:

    http://yyuq.com
    http://uk38.com

    2 New Url shortener .
    Possibility to use your own custom keyword ex ( yyuq.com/lawyers , uk38.com/youtube … )
    track the visitor of your link with acurate country stats .
    hope you like it

  253. David Says:

    Check out http://tiny.by – password protect your URLS!

  254. J. Scott Anderson Says:

    I use BudURL, since most of my use for shortening service is to use in marketing. They have nice tracking tools with reports I can give good data to my clients.

  255. Quiz Says:

    worth it , thank for the post , keep the good work

  256. kingsley Says:

    http://yrn.me/ is really awesome…i recommend it

  257. meontv Says:

    http://url.go.it is a new site that short a url, i think is funny, stats section is cool and the service is fast enough and seo friendly as majority of url shorteners on the web today..

    I think http://bit.ly is still the most secure, robust and fast
    :)
    -meontv-

  258. Ex0dus Says:

    http://Din.gy is a simple and fast URL shortener
    it allows you to create password protected links, choose a custom links
    and has another unique feature of e-mail shortening that short your mail address and protecting it with CAPTCHA

    example for a spam link: http://din.gy/ifR3K

  259. bugy Says:

    no doubt http://din.gy is the best out there

  260. Blake Embrey Says:

    Check out http://gi.vc

    It is fairly quick, has a simple stats view in the preview and is very easy to share the shortened link to any service after you have shortened it. Plus, more features and add ons are coming soon, just contact me on twitter with what you want added.

  261. Sim Says:

    I use http://Tez.co. Allows me to customise my urls. At the mo they are producing links that are 16 characters long. Nice length!

  262. Sim Says:

    .. meant to say that http://Tez.co also gives full statistics of time and days of clicks, and click location and referral information as well plus the standard click count as well. Pretty good stats.

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