Bit.ly, Goo.gl, budurl.com, tinyurl.com. You’ve seen URL shorteners and in recent years, their popularity has exploded with the advent of Twitter and having to get a message across (with a link!) in less than 140 characters. TinyURL.com is one of the original URL shorteners and I used it years ago when trying to send Google Map directions to friends. In the past 18-24 months, the huge growth of Twitter has really fueled the growth of URL shorteners. Since Twitter only allows you to post 140 characters at a time, your URLs need to be as short as possible to leave room for messaging. Here are some features and drawbacks fromsom positives and negatives of some of the leading URL shorteners below:

Bit.ly:

Bit.ly is the most popular URL shortener online today, and for good reason. After bursting onto the scene just a few short years ago, Bit.ly has not been content to sit still for long. They took over as the default URL shortener on Twitter (until Twitter’s proprietary t.co shortener took over a few months ago) and they keep coming up with reasons for people to keep using them. From their easy to access and robust stats to their simple to use API to the inclusion of QR codes, Bit.ly makes using their service very easy.

Features:

• One of the shortest URL shorteners. Since . The minimum length of a Bit.ly link is just 19 characters! That only takes up about 13% of your tweet (140).
• Easy to view click stats: Simply add a + to the end of any Bit.ly URL (http://bit.ly/TourTechCrnr+). You can easily see how many clicks your link received and where those clicks are coming from.
  • The stats even show you how many times your link was retweeted and shared on Facebook.
• Allows for easy customization of shortened URLs: (http://bit.ly/gnAyGt turns into http://bit.ly/TourTechCrnr) easily.
• Allows for link bundling: Let’s say you’re sending 10 links to some coworkers to look at some research you’ve been doing. You can bundle those links into 1 bit.ly bundle link so you don’t have to copy and paste 10 different links to each person.
• Bit.ly has a Pro option that is free and offers you the ability for your bit.ly links to be branded with your own custom shortened URL. For example, the New York Times uses nyti.ms, the Huffington Post uses huff.to. Just another way you can extend your brand and use a great URL shortener at the same time.
• Robust API that allows you to integrate your Bit.ly account to shorten URLs in many social media management applications like TweetDeck and TwitterFeed.
• Automatically creates a QR code: Bit.ly automatically creates a QR code for each and every shortened URL you create. This is hugely important as smartphones and QR codes are being used more each day.
  • Don’t know what QR codes are? Check out this good intro post for now. I’ll write up a post about QR codes soon too.

Shortfalls:

• Honestly, one of the only reasons I could think to not use Bit.ly is if you’re already using HootSuite or another social media management application that doesn’t allow you to use a third-party URL shortener.

Goo.gl:

Goo.gl is one of the newer URL shorteners. They originally launched exclusively for shortening links to Google-owned properties like YouTube, Google Maps and others, but recently opened up to shorten any link.

Features:

• One of the shortest URL shorteners. The minimum length of a Goo.gl link is just 19 characters! That only takes up about 13% of your tweet (140).
• Easy to view click stats: Follows the Bit.ly model of showing stats for each link by adding a + to the end of the URL (http://goo.gl/CxTk2+). You can easily see how many clicks your link received and where those clicks are coming from.
• Automatically creates a QR code: Just like Bit.ly (in fact, Bit.ly did it first), Goo.gl automatically creates a QR code for each and every shortened URL you create.

Shortfalls:

• Does not allow for customized URLs: http://goo.gl/CxTk2.
• Not used as widely as Bit.ly: This may not really be a negative, but it’s not used nearly as often as Bit.ly (check out this article on ReadWriteWeb all about the top shorteners)

Ow.ly:

One of the first URL shorteners, TinyURL hasn’t done much in terms of upgrading their capabilities in the past 8 years. TinyURL is a simple and plain URL shortener. The provide you with the ability to shorten any URL for display elsewhere on the web.

Features:

• One of the shortest URL shorteners.  The minimum length of a Ow.ly link is just 18 characters! That only takes up about 13% of your tweet (140).
• More secure stats: Since you can only view the stats on your shortened URLs if you created them and you’re logged into your HootSuite account, you don’t have to worry about others seeing the stats from your links.
• Through the HootSuite interface, you can download your clicks data to a csv file for manipulating offline.
• Allows you to upload pictures, files (and soon videos) to a shortened URL as well. This is great, because you don’t have to host the files on your own server – just let Ow.ly host them for you.

Shortfalls:

• Does not allow for customized URLs: http://ow.ly/3p7vr.
• No easy way to view tracking information outside of HootSuite. You can’t simply add a + to the end of your URL to view stats like you can with bit.ly. Instead, you have to log into HootSuite and use their stats interface to view info about each individual link.
• Does not (currently) automatically create QR codes for you with each shortened URL.

Budurl:

I used Budurl for about a year in late ’08 through late ’09. One reason I started using it is that I started getting more active on Twitter and I needed a URL shortener that would give me some statistics about how many clicks I was getting on my links. Budurl was one of the first URL shorteners to offer basic stats like that. Budurl now offers several levels of paid plans in addition to a free plan.

Features:

• Allows for customized shortened URL: budurl.com/TourTechCrnr
• Preview function: By placing ? at the end of the URL (budurl.com/TourTechCrnr?), users will see a preview to see where your shortened link will bring them. By using the preview feature, you can ensure you won’t be led to any risky sites without your knowledge.
• Basic click numbers in the free account: You can see the number of clicks each URL received.

Shortfalls:

• Fairly long”short” URLs: While a Budurl link isn’t quite as long as TinyURL links, it’s still relatively long. The minimum length of a Budurl link is at least 24 characters! That’s just over 1/6^th of the total characters allowed in a tweet (140)
• Very basic tracking metrics on free account: This is probably the biggest reason I’d recommend using one of the other URL shorteners I already mentioned. While the basic click-through numbers are nice for the free account, you don’t get into the really good stats until you start paying $8, $12 or $49 a month. Still, not a bad price for good analytics, but you can get a lot of the same features for free from Bit.ly.
• Free version does not (currently) automatically create QR codes for you with each shortened URL.

TinyURL:

One of the first URL shorteners, TinyURL hasn’t done much in terms of upgrading their capabilities in the past 8 years. TinyURL is a simple and plain URL shortener. The provide you with the ability to shorten any URL for display elsewhere on the web.

Features:

• Allows for customized shortened URL.
  • Instead of this url: tinyurl.com/2d3vdch I could create this one: tinyurl.com/TourTechCrnr – slightly more customized and memorable.
• Preview function. By placing preview. before tinyurl in the URL (preview.tinyurl.com/TourTechCrnr), users will see a preview to see where your shortened link will bring them. By using the preview feature, you can ensure you won’t be led to any risky sites without your knowledge.

Shortfalls:

• Long “short” URLs: Even though the link that TinyURL generates is significantly smaller than the original link you submitted, it’s still relatively long as far as modern URL shorteners are concerned. The minimum length of a TinyURL link is at least 26 characters! That’s nearly 1/5^th of the total characters allowed in a tweet (140)
• Very little innovation: While TinyURL has been around for almost 9 years, they have changed very little about the site and have not kept up with the new players in terms of innovation and features they offer.
• No tracking metrics: This is probably the biggest reason I’d recommend staying away from TinyURL. With all of the other big players in the URL shortener field providing some level of tracking and anlaytics, there’s just no real benefit to go with TinyURL over one of the others.
• Does not (currently) automatically create QR codes for you with each shortened URL.

You can decide which URL shortener works best for you, but it’s best to use one that will work in concert with your other efforts. If you manage a Twitter account, Facebook page, MySpace profile and a Foursquare account, it might make more sense to use Bit.ly or Ow.ly, since they can be hooked up with Social Media management tools. If you’re just looking for something simple and no-frills, Goo.gl or Bit.ly might be for you. Have you used shortened URLs before? Which service to you typically use?