Initially Twitter automatically translated URLs longer than twenty-six characters using TinyURL, although it began using bit.ly instead in 2009[10] and later developed its own URL shortening service, t.co. Maybe you find an interesting photo or song, or you want to refer people to another article someone else wrote. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. For a full list of available tracking link parameters, read our Customizing an Affiliate Tracking Link article. Build trust & increase click rate: people tend to click on the links that they trust rather than unknown URLs (ie. bit.ly/buSzh might be a spam link). These extensions are easily obtained and generic enough for almost any organization to use.
Google has possibly started this process for you but the tracking code must be updated on your website pages. For example, the URL "" can be shortened to "", and the URL "" can be shortened to "".
In fact, each of Instagram’s 800 million user accounts could post one photo every single minute for about 42 and a half years before they have to worry about that limit being hit. 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. You just end up following other people who fell for the same thing and you’re all tweeting to each other, without any of you really listening to what the other ones have to say.You get a whopping 280 tiny Twitter characters to say what you want to say in a tweet. Many extensions are available from companies you already use for domain registration — such as Hover. Bit.ly, which is what we integrate with in CoSchedule, uses a 301 redirect. There are security implications, and obsolete short URLs remain in existence and may be circulated long after they cease to point to a relevant or even extant destination.
URL shorteners typically work by redirecting users using a special server response commonly referred to as a "301." This tells the browser that the resource at your short URL has been permenantly moved to the full URL's location. On the Links tab, Click Performance displays your tracked URLs and the number of total and unique clicks for each.
TweetDeck and Seesmic (TweetDeck’s direct competitor) both offer numerous URL-shortener options (bit.ly, is.gd, TinyURL, and twURL), but only bit.ly offers click tracking. Often regular unshortened links may be aesthetically unpleasing. Macro Name: element url hostname Macro Type: Custom Javascript Custom Javascript: Caveats If you have a Google Analytics Premium account, note that this will increase the # of events for you site. 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. Wikipedia entries on TLDs typically include information on all these restrictions in the right sidebar of each TLD's entry. Once the address is copied, paste that address into another program by clicking a blank field and pressing Ctrl+V or Cmd+V. If done properly, you should have in the above box.