Links Pile Up: 20+ Ways to Easily Short URL

Every one who has a twitter account must have seen short link or short url that twitter use when you post a new update with a long url. URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web where a provider makes a web page available under a very short URL in addition to the original address. There are several reasons to use URL shortening:

• Avoid URL garbling: Currently, web developers tend to pass descriptive attributes in the URL to represent data hierarchies, command structures, transaction paths and session information. This may result in a URL that is aesthetically unpleasant and difficult to remember. Copying a URL that is hundreds of characters long can make the URL garbled. Then a short URL is useful to copy on an e-mail message or a forum post.
• Use the smallest space possible
• Reading aloud: To accomplish this objective any URL shortening service can be useful. However those which let the user choose the URL are more suited for this task.
• Manipulating visitors: URL shortening is a special kind of URL redirection, which is sometimes used in pranks, phishing, or affiliate hiding. More recently, some of these services have started filtering all shortened links through services like Google Safe Browsing.

br.st
“With br.st! you can take a long URL, shorten it, share it, and then track the traffic to it. All destination links checked against Google Safe Browsing”

bit.ly
“bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier. bit.ly can be accessed through our website, bookmarklets and a robust and open API.”

is.gd
“is.gd is a service that shortens URLs such as web addresses. This is useful in many circumstances e.g. in email clients that break long URLs.”

TinyLink.in

ow.ly

fly2.ws
“Shorten Long Annoying URL”

Foxy URL
“Easily shorten long urls, the firefox way”.

urlPass 
“urlPass is a URL redirection or URL forwarding service. It allows you to make long and cumbersome links or web addresses shorter, with the resulting tiny url or short link being easier to pass on. The shortened URL or shortened link becomes a permanent and unique link or redirect to a particular webpage.”

kl.am
“Shorten URL with URL Shortener for Internet Marketers:”

lt.tl

shor10
“short10 is a web service that provides short aliases to redirect long URLs”

OinkURL
“Oink provide a simple, yet effective way to make your URL’s nice and short!”

00n.net
“00n.net allows you to create shorter a URL that can be easily shared and distributed. Shortened URLs can be posted to web sites, forums or blogs and the url will never expire!”

Not Safe For Work

Snipie

shorten.ws
“Short URL Cloaking Service + Marketing”

ndurl
“shorten urls to share and download to mobile”

snipurl

Yep that URL!
“YEP is a free service of short URL redirection. It converts any URL given to one easy to manage and personalized. Now you can create shorter URLs that can be effortless shared and distributed through the Internet, posted to web sites and blogs without breaking in email messages.”

good.ly
“Shorten the URL of a product or service and help charities”

WowURL
“Make long URL usable!”

Firefox Plugins

Shorten URL
“Shorten long URL from context menu or toolbar button with your selected URL shortener and display the result in location bar. Supports more than 100 URL shorteners.”

Foxy URL
“Shorten long urls right from your favorite browser.”

URL Shrink Easy
“URL Shrink Easy gives you a fast and convenient way to convert standard links into shortened URLs. The context menu offers a quick way to copy a shortened URL to your clipboard automatically using either TinyURL or Bitly.”

Snip-n-Tag
“A Firefox sidebar to easily shorten URLs, plus add Google Analytics tracking tags. Great for measuring traffic from Twitter. Snip-n-Tag currently supports five of the most popular URL shortening websites, including tr.im, bit.ly and tinyurl.”

Links are listed in no specific order.