URL Shortener Roundup

If you’ve used Twitter you’ve no doubt noticed long links get automatically shortened using TinyURL. Not only does it crop up there though, I’ve noticed New Scientist (and other magazines) have been using it across their entire publication.  That’s pretty cool, but what if TinyURL goes down?  Also where’s the innovation if just one service rules the roost?

So while TinyURL does the job admirably there’s alternatives out there, expanding on the basic features with all kinds of interesting features.

is.gd is a widely used alternative.  Technically links are shorter, and it displays the number of characters saved.  It doesn’t do anything radically different, but it’s clean (no ads in every nook and cranny like some TinyURL clones out there.)

bit.ly is more advanced altogether.  It provides detailed click-through stats, as well as getting stats off similar services.  After bookmarking you can click on “Info” to actually gather intelligence through the Traffic Sources, Conversations and Metadata links.

It’s pretty cool seeing Twitter conversations about a link, but the metadata is also interesting:  Open Calais is used to semantically tag text from the link’s page, and MetaCarta is used to get the file type.

Cligs is similar to bit.ly, but it sounds like “clicks” so your mum might remember it.  Actually my family seem to forget any URL with a non-popular TLD so scratch that.  Anyway, it’s like bit.ly but you have to login to get the juicy value-add info.

It’s not as clean as bit.ly, but it does offer something novel: geo-targeted URLs.  This means you can send people to different locations based on their location.  This is great for Amazon links in blog posts.

Krunchd bookmarks sets of URLs, rather than just one.  It also displays the number of views, giving you a tasty little stat.  Here’s an example.