Stronger, Shorter, Faster URLs

How often do you have to send a long website address (URL) to a friend, such as a Google Map or a book you want to buy on Amazon? For example, here is the URL for a Malcolm Gladwell book I am contemplating purchasing, http://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017922/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248667532&sr=8-1. Here is the same URL using Bit.ly, http://bit.ly/vqI3p.

In the past we’ve suggested using TinyURL, which does a great job shortening a long URL and spitting out an address a one quarter of its size. Now another service called Bit.ly is taking the shortening of URLs by storm because it’s stable and has stronger reporting than it’s competitors. Bit.ly has built in multiple layers of redundancy so that the addresses can always resolve to their final landing page.

Furthermoe bit.ly has superior analytics. The service tracks clicks, total clicks, referrers and locations across month of data. Finally, It’s been reported that Twitter recently also moved to bit.ly as its shortening URL provider of choice.

So why not give it a try? Have you ever used a shorterning URL service? http://bit.ly/