Top 10 URL Shorteners you should know

Social media networks is known to only accommodate a certain number of characters in their status update fields thus the need for URL shortener arose to reduce the length of URL links. Shortening URL is useful for the promotion of links on social networks like Twitter, Identi.ca  and others alike with just 140 characters space, with URL shorteners it is quite easy to reduce the length of the URLs to fit into the allowed spaces.

What is a URL Shortener?

A URL shortener is an online service or application that reduces the length of a URL and still direct to the required page. So when you use this service to shorten a URL, the shortened URL will still point to the original URL. For Example, this URL http://netmediablog.com/how-to-disable-windows-startup-programs-with-ccleaner/ can be shortened to http://shar.es/uKUhN and both will still point to the same page. URL shorteners have given us a platform to reduce long URLs and make them shorter and easier to remember, with URL shorteners one can now easily share URLs on Twitter and other social media networks etc.

I am not going to be discussing the advantages of URL shortening today, I want to simply introduce you to my top 10 URL shorteners. So check them out:

Top 10 URL Shorteners:

1. Bit.ly: This is my favorite URL shortener, it allows sharing functionalities, history and developers tools. You can even sign in with just your Facebook or Twitter account.

2. Tinyurl: Tinyurl is yet another URL shortener that allows you to shorten long URLs. Tinyurl allows URL redirection and can as well hide URLs. The best part is that you can customize your long URL to whatever you want.

3. Gol.gl: Gol.gl is a URL shortener by Google Inc. I don’t really favourite it because all their shortened URLs and click analytics are public and can be accessed by anyone.

4. Shar.es: Shar.es is the URL shortener for Sharethis.com. This URL shortener is most common with blogs as it normally comes with ShareThis widgets.

5. Owl.ly: Owl.ly is the official HootSuite URL shortener.  It can be used in HootSuite while logged in to the dashboard for both mobile and web or it can be used as a stand-alone URL shortener on the web.

6. Su.pr: This is Stumbleupon’s official URL shortener which allows one to syndicate content to StumbleUpon and other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

7. Ink.in: Ink.in URL shortener is a powerful short URL generator, domain forwarding and URL redirection service. With Ink.in you can as well customize your shortened links, and even make batch links.

8. Moourl.com: Moourl is a web’s cutest URL shortener. Moourl can shorten and link no matter how long it and make a moourl for you.

9 Fur.ly: Fur.ly is a unique way of shortening long URLs, you can even shorten multiple URLs into a single URl with fur.ly. Check it out.

10 Cli.gs: cli.gs is a URL shortener by Mister Wong, a social bookmarking service. Cli.gs is used to shorten links for easier sharing. You can sign in to this service with your twitter account. Shortened URLs can be customized with cli.gs.

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