If the shorthand link is found to be associated with a URL, the URL is fetched, otherwise an error message is returned.[7] The patent was filed in September 2000; while the patent was issued in 2005, US patent applications are made public within 18 months of filing. Get everything hooked up Some services, such as Bitly, let anyone create a vanity URL shortener. Some shortening services, such as goo.gl, tinyurl.com, and bit.ly can generate URLs that are human-readable, although the resulting strings are longer than those generated by a length-optimized service.
In November 2009, the shortened links of the URL shortening service Bitly were accessed 2. They enable campaigns with limited text space, such as SMS campaigns. Use alternate extensions "hacks": Many country code extensions can be used to help form your company name by using the characters before and after the dot to form a shortened for similar sounding version of your name.
When a link domain is enabled, it is also used to serve your Hosted Pages, which will also become accessible via HTTPS after following these instructions. Note: Not all website UTM parameters work properly with Google Analytics. Unfortunately, this URL shortener doesn’t allow you do create a custom short URL. They'll be able to view the same real-time reports any time they want!
So if you accidentally enter the wrong longer URL to the service, the new shorter URL can never be edited to associate it with a different longer URL. HootSuite also allows you to view a dashboard that tracks clicks for each shortened link shared in the management system. On the Links tab, Click Performance displays your tracked URLs and the number of total and unique clicks for each. They create unique tracking links and give you insight on how to create value out of the sharing data. A short URL eliminates this problem. • People sometimes guess the domain name of sites they have not visited before; so pick a name that describes your blog, company or brand.
See also[edit] [edit] External links[edit] URL redirection and shortening at Curlie (based on DMOZ) Comparison of URL Shortening Services, SearchEngineLand. If you need quick and dirty link shortening, maybe Bitly is then the best for you. If you're comfortable with Web hosting and setting up simple PHP and mySQL applications, there are several free scripts you can use to set up a URL shortener on your own server, giving you much more control. However, if it's a direct link to a resource like a document or PDF or JPG, to track this link when using Google Analytics you may need some custom tracking methods setup on your server to track that particular link to your resource. Services available include an ordinary, easy-to-say word as the URL with a lifetime from 5 minutes up to 24 hours, creation of a URL which will expire on a specified date or after a specified period, creation of a very-short-lived URL of only 5 characters for typing into a smartphone, restriction by the creator of the total number of uses of the URL, and password protection. When your campaign arrives in recipients' inboxes, the plain-text click tracking will look something like this example. When you schedule a link Tweet via Hootsuite, you can shorten the link to an owl.ly link. owl.ly/0a0b0c0 Google: As always, Google has something for you too.