There’s a lot of terms flying around in this new age of “social technology”, where companies like Facebook, Blogger, and Twitter are becoming household names. But what do any of these terms really mean and why should you care? That’s what I’ll be explaining in my weekly Tech Talk.
What is a URL?
Before I explain what a short url is, let me briefly explain what a URL is. We all use URLs every day, in most cases without even thinking about it.A URL, put simply, is the location of a web page on the internet.
For example, www.talkinc.com is a URL that takes you to our homepage.
What is a short url?
A short url, as you might suspect, is actually a shorter URL that can be used to direct people to the normal, longer url. For example, http://bit.ly/nfrsq is a short url for http://www.talkinc.com. They both go to the same place, the only difference is that the short url redirects people to our “long” url.
Why did short URLs come about?
Short URLs really began around 2002 in a variety of forms but didn’t really begin to become popular until internet services based on text messaging such as Twitter were created.
The reason short urls became so popular with these text oriented services is because, as you may know, text messages can only be 160 characters in length. This made the need for conserving characters all the more important. The ability to take a url from 50 characters down to 20 was too attractive to pass up.
Why use URL shorteners?
Often times during the process of redirecting someone from the short url to the long url, the short URL service commits an action, such as tracking the number of people who clicked on the link, or serving up a specialized page. These actions means short url services provide additional benefits for marketing, branding and so forth.
For example: We use bit.ly because it has great statistics on impressions and conversions which help our marketing efforts. Digg has created their own URL shortener which aids them with much the same, along with additional exposure of their brand.
Which URL shortener should I use?
If you have a need to use a URL shortener, such as sharing content across social networks, twitter, or text, then I would suggest using bit.ly. There are other shorteners, and Danny Sullivan has written a great comparison of the different shortening services for those interested in part of the technical depth. If you’re not, just use bit.ly!
