Which url shortener should I use?

Banned 13 years ago

The best link-tracker/forwarder/url-shortener to use is really any one that you own and control yourself.

It's not so good to rely on the continued availability, goodwill, reliability and changeable terms of service of any third-party URL-shortening/tracking service. There were a few hundred Warriors here last year who would have told you the same (and in fact did) when all their Tinyurl links suddenly disappeared overnight!

Have a look at this recent post on Ben Metcalfe's blog: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe | :Ben Metcalfe Blog.

Really, it's good to be in control of your own business and not dependent on unnecessary third-party services (in countries like Libya!) and their reliability and longevity.

Many people here use it, but that doesn't make it "good" ... nor "safe", unfortunately.

If you talk to a turkey who gets well fed every day and well looked after for 3 years plus, before being killed for Thanksgiving, he'll tell you on every day of his 999-day life that everything's absolutely fine, because that's his experience at that point. Try talking to him on the 1000th day of his "life". The problem with using services like the one you're asking about is that you can't tell what day of their life it is (and neither can they).

"Well, I've been using it for 998 days and I've never had a problem".

Whatever you're using bit.ly for, there are far better, far safer solutions readily available.

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TG12 13 years ago

Google URL Shortener FTW
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LooseChange

13 years ago

Alexa hit the nail right on the head. It's only a few lines of code to create your own basic url shortener. Depending on how much you want to track, the whole process is rather uncomplicated and as Alexa said, it's best to keep that sort of business in-house.

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Blaine Moore

13 years ago

I got a short domain of my own (3 characters on the .us extension) and installed YOURLs as a URL shortener and it has worked out pretty well for me. I control them, it's shorter than most of the other URL shorteners, has tracking, and nobody but me can use it.

YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

Open source, no cost, relatively easy to install.

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Brad Gosse

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Blaine Moore

I got a short domain of my own (3 characters on the .us extension) and installed YOURLs as a URL shortener and it has worked out pretty well for me. I control them, it's shorter than most of the other URL shorteners, has tracking, and nobody but me can use it.

YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

Open source, no cost, relatively easy to install.

What he said!

I love the Yourls script!

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Dan C. Rinnert 13 years ago

Why do people seem to insist on putting significant portions of their business under the control of some third party they have no control over?

What happens, for example, if one of these url shortening services gets bought out and the new owner decides to change all the links to aff links for products they want to promote?

What happens if they decide they need a better way of monetizing and decide to show contextual ads (based on the destination URL) prior to sending people to the site you intended?

What happens if they fold? (And then someone snaps up the expired domain and redirects everything to their sites?)

What happens if they decide they need to clean up their links and disable any links to "dodgy" sites, like porn, malware and affiliate marketing sites?

What happens--especially in the case of country TLDs--if the host country pulls the plug on non-native resident domain name registrations?

What happens if Muammar Gaddafi seizes bit.ly and decides every link should redirect to a picture of himself and Charlie Sheen with the caption "#WINNING"?

Maybe some of these what-ifs are far-fetched, but, the thing is, when you don't control something, YOU DON'T CONTROL IT.

Maybe the url shortening service you choose will never have issues. Maybe it will continue to be just fine well into the future. Or, maybe not.

As others have suggested, get your own. One you control. One your customers can recognize and trust. I am hesitant to click on shortened URLs these days. Where will they really go? Why did they use a shortener? If it's in an eMail or on their own site, why'd they need to shorten it? It's almost like a mystery link. Not sure if I can trust it.

Whereas, if you have your own, if you build a relationship with me and convince me I can trust the shortened URLs on your own service, I may be less hesitant to click the link to check it out.

I don't know what the general consensus is with URL shorteners among the general public, but they always make me uneasy. On Twitter, they make sense. It needs to be short. (Yet, still, I am distrustful.) But, in other venues, they aren't always needed and it makes me uneasy, as it always feels they are hiding something.

Now, when they use something memorable (http://short.dom/coolproduct), okay, yeah, I can understand that better. But, when I see something like, http://short.dom/an672jd, I'm a little leery.

Originally Posted by Blaine Moore

YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

Open source, no cost, relatively easy to install.

Relatively easy? Looks like a breeze to install. I may have to give this a try. I have my own URL shortening site, but I've been doing it a more manual way. LOL.
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Fazal Mayar

13 years ago

i use bit.ly but there seems to be better url shorteners out there

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Jeff Henshaw

13 years ago

YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

Open source, no cost, relatively easy to install.

Relatively easy to install eh!

I've just visited the site via the above link.

Relatively speaking, it would take me the best part of five years to work out what the site is about and what exactly to download. Then of course there is the 20 to 30 years I'd need to get everything working properly. :confused:

What's easy for some might not be so for others - certainly not for me in this case.

Now what's the term that I am looking for? - yes, I think in my case it's "out-source"

Jeff.

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Blaine Moore

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Jeff Henshaw

Relatively easy to install eh!
[...]
Now what's the term that I am looking for? - yes, I think in my case it's "out-source"

Jeff.

Heheh...perhaps I should have clarified.

It's relatively easy to install for anybody with a little tech experience, and relatively easy to outsource without causing huge headaches to everybody else. heheheh

That's my general definition of relatively easy to install anyway.

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shydesigner

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Blaine Moore

Heheh...perhaps I should have clarified.

It's relatively easy to install for anybody with a little tech experience, and relatively easy to outsource without causing huge headaches to everybody else. heheheh

That's my general definition of relatively easy to install anyway.

Well, there is a product you need to create and sell to us. Make a guide and a video on how to install that code. I would buy it.

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DatingGoldJason

13 years ago

bit.ly is good, I use it a lot

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Shazia Mirza

13 years ago

I have had success with AdTrackz. Yes, it does have a relatively high price tag, but it is worth every penny.

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Jeremy Barker

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alimar

Are there any benefits to paying for the budurl service as opposed to using the free service provided by bit.ly

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I have always used bit.ly and never have had a problem with it. There are so many out there it really doesn't matter as long as it is free and you can track clicks to the shortened url's.

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GarryO 13 years ago

As far as I know, there is no sense in paying for the URL shorting application or service. Therefore, using a free one is recommended. You can choose tiny URL for your needs.
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rainso0

13 years ago

i use FTW

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abigailmarketing

13 years ago

You may use tinyurl.com or bit.ly because based on my experience it is good and simple to use. But there are other URL shortener out there like shorturl.com, tiny.cc, goo.*gl, doiop.com, readthisurl.com, dwarfurl.com, etc

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simonbuzz

Banned 13 years ago

I use bitly...

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Rob Whisonant

13 years ago

My vote goes to the one you own and control. Tons of free scripts around and some inexpensive paid ones in case you need a little support.

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mologic

13 years ago

you can do your own too

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Jake Gray

13 years ago

Most of the time I tend to use YOURLS. As Brad Gosse said,
grab a short domain and install it on there. It's just as good
and you are able to control it yourself. It displays all statistics
too. So, there really is no excuse for depending on a 3rd party
solution.

Maintain control of your business. There is no reason to be risking
anything. This is one of the best ways to 'grab the bull by the horns'
and bite the bullet if you aren't a technical wizard. One thing that
makes the interest so interesting is that you get to explore your options.

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Niky Ray

13 years ago

I use bit.ly and I am quite happy with it.
I hope it helps!

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Jeff Henshaw

13 years ago

Heheh...perhaps I should have clarified.

It's relatively easy to install for anybody with a little tech experience, and relatively easy to outsource without causing huge headaches to everybody else. heheheh

That's my general definition of relatively easy to install anyway.

Point taken

I have very little tech experience!

Jeff.

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Greyhounds

Banned 13 years ago

If you do not go through the option of making your own URL shortener, just use Bit.ly. Its great to be able to track all of your stats by adding a '+' to the end of your Bitly URL

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Deveron Hilgers

13 years ago

I use bit.ly a lot but if you expand I'd get my own url shortener set up.

Scylin

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Which url shortener should I use?

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