Over the coming weeks I will be writing a number of articles on URL Shorteners. I have been using Shortened URL's for some time and it wasn't until people started asking me about that I realised that they are only really understood by people engaged in On-line Business. So this series of articles aims to provde something for the beginner and, hopefully, something for the more seasoned Online Professional.

In this first article I will cover What is a URL Shortener and what are the advantages and disadvantages of using one. I will also provide an 'Initial' list of URL Shortening Providers (there are over 200 in existence today!) which, over time, I will provide further information on... so check back if you want more details... or let me know if you want a particular provider reviewed a bit quicker.link shortener

In future articles I will cover, in addition to the provider reviews, a look at Free vs Paid for services; how to check and validate a shortened link and then on to some tracking information.

What is a URL Shortener?

A URL Shortener is simply a technique on the Internet for taking a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and making it substantially shorter in length whilst still directing to the required Internet page.

This is achieved by using an HTTP Redirect on a domain name that is short, which links to the Internet page that has a long URL.

What are the Advantages of Using a URL Shortener?

Social Media
With the advent of Social Media sites like Twitter and Identi.ca that only allow a relatively small number of characters in a message, using long URL's meant that there was little or no space for the actual message. Shortening the URL allows longer messages to be included alongside the URL.

Disguise
Shortening the URL allows the originating web address to be disguised. This has some disadvantages which I will cover later but, from a positive perspective, it does allow an address to be made 'more presentable' i.e. by removing all those seemingly random characters and also to hide the originating domain name that, for whatever reason, people may not choose to click on.