There are dozens of Free URL shortening (and redirecting) services available on the internet. Obviously, we would go for this service purposely to make the looooooooooooong web address into a much shorten one and the second reason is to hide our affiliate links.
To cut long story short, let looks at my shortlisted URL shortening services with their features.
1. TinyURL [*TinyURL!] – The least preferred URL shortening service on the list. Why? Because TinyURL will automatically generate a random URL for you, something similar to this http://tinyurl.com/32xqr9. You don’t like it? Me either. On the plus side, you get to preview the actual web address redirect by the shorten URL before proceed to the actual site, but first you must have the preview feature enabled.
2. urlTea [*urlTea!] – Slightly different from TinyURL, at which you can describe the generated random URL into meaningful text by adding ?any-text-you-like after the URL. Here’s an example, http://urltea.com/2h5r and http://urltea.com/2h5r?usb-thumb-drive-for-lunch , they mean the same. Both links will lead you to the same site.
3. MooURL [*MooURL!] – Similar to TinyURL, you get a random web address, something like this, http://moourl.com/uhqeu but you have a choice to personalize your URL (up to 20 characters) into something more meaningful like http://moourl.com/thumb_drive_4_lunch .
4. Shorl [*Shorl!] -You get random generated URL but no worry because when a user clicks the shorten URL, the user will be shown the actual web address for a few seconds before arrive to the actual site, so user knows where is he/she heading for. This is similar to the preview feature of TinyURL. Another advantage is that you get to track how many hits you get for the URL.
5. Snipr [*Snipr!] – The best of all. You can sign up for an account, personalize your URL, assign private key to your shorten URL, track the number of hits for each URL and multisnip – meaning convert multiple URLs at once. Cool huh? What more can you ask for?
* Drag your preferred URL shortening service’s bookmarklet into your browser’s bookmark tool and create short URLs with just a click.
So which one are you going to pick?
