‘Tis the Season to … Shorten URLs

December turned out to be a big month in the world of URL shortening services. With the rise in the use of Tweets and status updates came the popularity of URL shorteners. With the message length limits in place on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, every character matters. As their name implies, URL shorteners take a long link that you supply and generate a shorter URL for you to share in its place. The link still takes you to the original source, while leaving you more room to talk about what you’ve found and want to share.

Some of the services that were already around include bit.ly, tinyurl.com, ow.ly and is.gd.

Now, other recognizable names are getting in on the act too. Facebook and Google both announced this month that they have their own URL shortening services (fb.me and goo.gl, respectively). YouTube also has added the service for sharing shorter video links (they start with youtu.be).

Who do you think will be the next one to add their URL shortening service to the mix? Or is this all a passing fad?

Shannon
New Media & SEO Specialist, Copywriter
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