Blogging Tips

Every time I look around there seems to be a new URL shortener popping up. I often think to myself, how many URL shorteners do we really need on the Internet? Surely not as many as there are but like many others, I enjoy trying out new tools. So, of course I wanted to see if any of these new shorteners I’ve come across can make me turn away from my personal favorite, Bit.ly. From this list I can say that Br.st did impress me most but, you be the judge.

TwitShort is a URL shortener for Twitter. Every link you create links to your Twitter profile in a top header attached to your link. If you create an account you can track hits for each URL. Under advanced options you can choose your own tag for the URL, create an expiration date or password protect your URL. You can also submit URLs in bulk if you have quite a few you’d like to shorten at once.

InURL.ws is a simple shortener where you simple enter the URL you want to shorten and click on “generate URL”. Nothing fancy, just a quick way to shorten a URL without the hassle of having to specify any advanced options.

Tiny Tw.it is another URL shortener that caters to Twitter. Not only can you shorten and share URLs but you can share pictures and files also. With the URL shortener you simply enter the link and custom keyword (optional) and “shrink it”. You can then enter a message and tweet it directly from the site or just copy it to use elsewhere.

Qux.in lets you share URLS, videos, text or anything else with a short URL. It’s very easy, you just enter what you’d like to share in the text box and “share it”. You’ll then get a short URL for it. If you sign up you can track your shortened URLs on the site. You can also send a tweet with your short URL right from the site.

Qwx.si is another one of those quick paste and click URL shorteners; you put in a long URL and click “shorten” to get a short URL. If you want to share your URL straight from the site, you can do so via their AddThis widget.

UnHub is unique in that it lets you create a short URL right from your browser address bar. You simply type “unhub.com/” in the address bar, in front of the URL and then press enter. So if you were on “http://bloggingtips.com”, you’d end up with “unhub.com/http://bloggingtips.com”. For the magic to happen you’d need to be logged into your account. You then immediately get a short URL that links to you along with a toolbar that includes stats from sites like Digg, Delicious and Bit.ly.

Tik.la is another fast, easy shortener with a very nice UI. Enter your URL, shorten it and get and URL to use on the web. If you want to test the URL you can do so by clicking on the “Try it!” button and it will open up the link in a new tab. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

Br.st lets you shorten and share links as well as share files and images. Which each short URL you get in-depth, real-time stats. You can see how many clicks, the referring site and location of the person who clicked it – all in real-time. You can then see link information and meta data for the link. These stats are not just text, they’re in graph form and pretty high quality if you ask me. You can also share your short URL on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, Gmail and more directly from the site.

Pie.im is the “easiest and faster way to create a short URL”. Enter your original URL along with a custom keyword (optional) and click to get your URL. It doesn’t stop there though, after getting your short URL you also get a private URL where you can view analytics for that short URL. That’s nice but what happens when you shorten 10 or more links? You’ll have to view 10 different links just to view stats for each one; this could get annoying.

What’s your favorite short URL service? Are there any URL shorteners on this list that you intend to use on a regular basis?