Shorten the long link
You might have a long website URL to want to share with your friend, the popular sharing methods are email, IM, and also the most popular tools Twitter, Facebook, and you might use your cell phone.
For example, we have this URL which it is a real link for ebay item list:
http://photography.shop.ebay.com/Digital-Cameras-/31388/i.html?LH_ItemCondition=1000&LH_TopRatedSellers=1&LH_FS=1&LH_Price=20..%40c&_nkw=Canon+%28SX230+HS%2C+500+HS%2C+300+HS%2C+100+HS%2C+A800%2C+A1200%2C+A2200%2C+A3300+IS%29&_trkparms=65%253A15%257C66%253A2%257C39%253A1&rt=nc&_dmpt=Digital_Cameras&_mPrRngCbx=1&_sticky=1&_trksid=p5197.m621&_sop=12&_sc=1%26clkid%3D100673974772410415&_qi=RTM866480
So, you have a trouble now: your URL link is too long for sharing: The long link always get broken when you post in your email or IM, and also we don’t think you can post it on Twitter directly since Twitter only allow 140 characters length. So Is it possible to be shorter ?
Yes, there are many Shorten link services, and they are free. Here we introduce several popular services:
1: TinyURL:
TinyURL is the one of earlier shorten link services providers. Before all Twitter’s shorter links used TinyURL service.
The first function which TinyURL is shorten the long link, for example, the link above can be converted to this one:
They also provides “Add TinyURL to your browser's toolbar”, so that “you'll be able to make a TinyURL at the click of a button. By clicking on the toolbar button, a TinyURL will be created for the page you are currently at.”
2: Bit.ly:
Bit.ly provide the similar shorten link service with TinyURL, Now they are providing shorten service for Twitter, Twitter changed the service from TinyURL to Bit.ly;
We try the same long URL and got the following shorter URL:
Bit.ly has beyond TinyURL and now it is the largest shorten link service provider, They provides more features and products , and also they provides API, which is a project of Google Code. They are more flexible and stronger than TinyURL
3: Goo.gl:
Goo.gl is Google’s shorten service, function is the same as above 2, but Bit.ly provides much more features.
Google URL Shortener at goo.gl is used by Google products to create short URLs that can be easily shared, tweeted, or emailed to friends.
By the way, a Chinese Twitter-like site. which belongs Sina China, named Weibo.com, they own the shortest domain name in the world: T.CN, and also they are using t.cn for their own shorten link service. but they are not a Shorten service provider.