Bit.ly, A Simple URL Shortener

October 17, 2009

utilitywebsite

It started with TinyURL, URL aliasing/shortening has become big business with similar sites growing out of the woodwork(See URL Shortening – History). With other unrelated services following the trend, like scr.im(email aliasing) and twt.fm(promotes music), adding value to support our slowly growing twittering society. Bit.ly is one such revolutionary child; but this child has grown big enough to even rival TinyURL.

What so great about bit.ly?

It accomplishes it task, but with flair. I love that bit.ly provides a means for me to track how many clicked the URLs i sent. Might be the reason for it’s sudden increase in popularity for such a short period. It doesn’t hurt either that it’s officially endorsed by twitter.com.

The member’s site has a number of features but I’ll concentrate on URL shortening and tracking.

Above screenshot you see the URL entry tool in RED dashed borders. This is where you jam your uber long URL. Usually, URL shortening is more conveniently done via an API call via a tool in your client software. But if you’re just want your un-memorize-able URL to be easier to carry around or share then the web tool should suffice.

bit.ly, a simple url shortener