URL Shortening Websites

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So What Else Can You Do With A Link?

Have you ever wondered if you could manage a set of links from one place or shorten a long, unruly link into a shorter, much nicer version?  Have you ever thought it would be neat to see how many time people have checked out your link on a forum or fix broken links from one place instead of many?

Well look no further, this lens is dedicated to link shortening websites and all the fun things you can do with them!

What Does A Shortened Link Look Like? 

URL = Uniform Resource Locator (Link)

Take A Monster Like This:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Toshiba_Satellite_P100
_ST9772/4505-3121_7-32378880.html?tag=pdtl-list

And Shrink It Down To Size Like This:
http://www.urlot.com/4gdvm8

Featured Site: URLot.com 

Better Than Sliced Bread

Introducing URLot.com, a brand new link shortening website that not only allows you to create shorter links but to manage your links as well.

Registration is free, but not mandatory and the site will never send you unwarranted or spam e-mail. In addition, if you register with URLot, you can track how many hits your links have, add, edit, or delete the links at will, and registered users have the option to set links to preview.

Reasons To Try Out URLot:

1) Create shorter links quickly and easily.
2) Manage your links in a nifty user panel.
3) Track how many hits each link has.
4) Advanced previewing of the destination!
5) More options coming soon!

Check Out URLot.com Today!

Why Use A Link Shortener? 

Go Little Link, Go!

So just what can you do with a small piece of information? Why, anything you can imagine, that's what.

Add Your Link Anywhere:
Put it in an e-mail, a magazine, a forum, a blog, pass it around on a piece of paper or even a napkin, a shortened link can fit in your pocket and is easy to type in and use.

Control Link Rot:
With link management, you can correct or delete a link that has become broken or disused.

Easily Share Information With Family:
Family members not too internet savvy? No problem, just give them a single, easy link to type in and no more problems. Easy for them to use, easy for you to share more information with them. Especially great for photos!

Links Set Up To Automatically Preview:
With preview functions, people can click a link and trust that they won't be pulled into a deep dark world of spam. URLot.com's preview even has picture preview courtesy of Snap.com's Preview Anywhere.

Links That Never Expire:
When you make a shortened link, odds are it will not expire so long as the site is active. That means you can enjoy relative peace and tranquility knowing full well that your links will be around the iternet for a good long time.

Would You Shorten A Link? 

Would you? Could you? Should you?

Would you shorten them in a press? Or cut away the excess? Would you squash them in plain site or file them away for the night? Would you, could you, should you shrink them, Sam I Am?

Loading poll. Please Wait...

URL Shortener Wishlist 

What Do YOU Want To See?

Have a cool idea that goes along with url shortening you want to share? Perhaps a solution to a problem with link shortening? Well, vote here or post your own!

1

Vote Up
Vote Down

Link Management

Is the ability to manage, delete, add, and edit links in a personalized list something you enjoy?1 point

2

Vote Up
Vote Down

Ease of Use

Do you want your link shortener to be drop dead simple to use? Even easier than that perhaps?1 point

3

Vote Up
Vote Down

Multiple Link Formats

Would you like the choice between several formats for a short link? Anything from a cryptic 5-6 character code to maybe something more semantic in nature?0 points

4

Vote Up
Vote Down

Advanced Link Preview

How about all sorts of options for the preview of a link? Maybe a picture preview as well as a text link? What about giving additional bookmarking or social networking options?0 points

5

Vote Up
Vote Down

Link Safety

Tough topic to broach on this subject, but would it be better if you felt more comfortable knowing you weren't getting spammed by shortened links all the time?0 points

6

Vote Up
Vote Down

Link Stats

Do you want to see how many times your link has been clicked? Any other stats that might be appropriate?0 points

7

Vote Up
Vote Down

Looks Good

We all know looks count, how much do they count for you?0 points

Link Shortening & Affiliate Marketing 

Welcome To the Dark Side of the Link

So let's talk affiliate marketing here for a moment. Say for instance you need to manage a set of links on various sites from one place and be able to correct them at a moment's notice? Well, that's easy you say, all I need a link manager.

Welcome to the power of shortened links paired with a link manager. This is the true power of URLot.com. Why with this knowlege you can pair up your affiliate site tracking with the basic stats tracking from the link site and boom! You know which links are doing well and can track if there is a relatonship between how many people checked out the link compared with how many bought. Perfect for using affiliate links in small campaigns for websites.

Just think of the possibilities.

Additional Information 

M(o+r/e) + I(n*f_o)

Here are a few links to give you some more information about the concept of URL shortening, what it's used for, and some examples services and links.
URL redirection - Wikipedia
Wikipedia Entry:
URL redirection, also called URL forwarding, domain redirection and domain forwarding, is a technique on the World Wide Web for making a web page available under many URLs.

URLot.com - Making Big Links Tiny!
Additional Services:
URLot.com is a site dedicated to shortening long, bothersome, links. In addition to link shortening, we also offer link management for registered users and upgraded services for paying users.
TinyURL.com
Additional Services:
TinyURL.com is the grandfather of url redirection services. It's fairly straight forward link shortening, no frills. But it's also the most recognizable online.
dMoz - Redirects
Additional Services List:
Open Directory currently has a rather comprehensive list of sites both North American and international in location.

Thoughts, Critiques, Comments, Or Complaints? 

So, whadya think?

If you've made it this far and have any thoughts or comments, please, by all means, post them here. We promise we won't bite. :)

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  • Reply
    mgoldstein37 mgoldstein37 Oct 23, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
    is "URL branding" worth mentioning in a discussion like this? we (i'm at Tucows) have a service at www.hover.com that lets users easily create URLs at their own domain name like www.yourdomainname.com/funnyvideo. they don't end up being quite as short. and we need to add in analytics. but it's nice to see who the link is from and a hint at what it's about.
  • Reply
    pavlovswriter pavlovswriter Oct 11, 2009 @ 1:45 am
    I found a site called tinyfav.com - they are totally free and you can store your sig links and squish other urls there
  • Reply
    bratkax bratkax Aug 4, 2009 @ 7:13 am
    Nice lens! I use OHCUT.ME services. They are pretty funny and I like them :)
  • Reply
    raj4126 raj4126 Apr 16, 2009 @ 12:31 am
    We recently launched a new website that provides a URL shortening service for "multiple" websites:

    http://www.viewista.com

    Viewista creates a short URL for "multiple" websites. Plus, you can view the multiple sites all at once. We think it can be a real time-saver. You can also post comments on the sites and share with your friends, making it a social URL sharing service. Viewista can be particularly useful on Twitter because a user can create a short URL for multiple sites on a topic without having to use multiple tweets.
  • Reply
    yazal yazal Apr 9, 2009 @ 8:13 am
    Great lens!

    To add, I currently use http://elurl.com which is simple and without ads or registration.
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