Technology Lighthouse

To cut a long URL short

There’s a really useful web-based service I’ve been using for a while, so I figured I’d give it a mention:

http://tinyurl.com/ 

Basically, it takes a long, unwieldy URL and gives you a much shorter URL that takes you to exactly the same page. This is extremely useful when you’re emailing links to someone. Why? Well many email clients have a nasty habit of breaking long URLs over multiple lines, which in turn actually breaks the URL. If the recipient realizes what’s happened then they have the hassle of recomposing the line and pasting it into their browser. If the recipient doesn’t realize what’s happened, they just think you’ve sent them a bad link. Either way, it’s not good.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 5:11 am and is filed under Geeks Corner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.