Url Shorteners

More and more communication is being condensed in text sized bytes of 140 characters or less. Even Blogs that don't have the same constraints need to be mindful that audiences have a tiny attention span due to to the myriad of options that are a mere click away/pun intended!


Hence the popularity of links to more specific and focused information. If you have an article that you want to direct your audience to, you may find that the URL alone takes up half the character allocation, not to mention looking ugly.


Url shorteners solve this issue. For example here is the normal url to a recent Blog of mine: http://kiaranfinn.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/perth-business-referral-clubpaid-referrals.html

this is the shortened version: http://bit.ly/6giac5


There are a lot of shorteners to choose from including the easy to remember tinyurl or my shortener of choice which is bit.ly


How does it work? Simple. Google tinyurl or bit.ly-or click the links above, and simple copy and paste your long Url into the box and instantly it's shortened for you.


The pitalls to be aware of sre that some shorteners have a short life span and links can get lost, hence my preference for the most popular.


Cheers Kiaran