The Shortest Url Shortening Services On The Planet

Introduction

Just out of curiosity, I thought I would search for short url services that provided the shortest urls. I found 8 really short url shortening services which you might find useful, plus one rather bizarre and humorous url service. Quite a few of these SUS's have unique features like - expiring short links, personalize your link, preview links and more.

If you are thinking of getting a short url domain like the examples below, be aware that they're very expensive.

My Findings With a Short Review

2.gp

These guys have a rather bland looking website, but then again if you're a fan of "black & white" then it'll be right down your alley. I had never heard of this site but they have good features:

• Extra short URLs, as a test I converted 1 of my post permalinks and the service spat out http://2.gp/=L . It looks a bit like a math equation but it works!
• Personal address to check stats: http://2.gp/=L+ , I think the 2.gp guys are definitely math/physics geeks.
• Delayed forwarding address which allows folks to preview the actual web link without going to the site eg http://2.gp/=L-
• Tweet with long urls, create your twitter messages with long URLs. Your long URLs will be automatically be converted to short urls. Sounds handy, but the actual page where you input you're twitter blurb looks rather uninspiring.
• Character length of 9

Out of 5 I give this site a 4

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2.ly

Can't say much about this site, because it looks EXACTLY the same as 2.gp.

Out of 5 I give this site a 2

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3.ly Threely

They claim to be the shortest URL shortening service in the world, but that's not quite true as there's at least 4 other services which come in at 9 characters.

The short link you get comes in at a low 9 characters, they allow you to make a custom short link also. After you've made your short link, they give you a couple of customization options... you can insert an optional symbol in front of the URL, and you can also turn your short link into a preview link. This will tack on a minus symbol to the end of the URL and thus you get http://3.ly/yBcp-

Quite strangely, the preview URL also doubles as the page where you check your real time stats.

Features:

• Custom short links
• Optional preview URL
• Real time stats
• Post short link creation customization
• Character length of 9

Out of 5 I give this site a 4

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qr.cx

User friendly? I think not!

On the website you're greeted with a barcode looking thingy which is the well known QR-Code and a bunch of bizarre instructions for entering your link and format instructions. There was no visible text input field and they strongly suggest to use they're Bookmarklet.

OK my first impression was "this is crap", but I figured out how to do it. You open the web page with the link you want to shorten in the address bar, then you go to your bookmarks and click the qr.cx bookmarklet and... hooray you get taken to a qr.cx webpage which has your short link. They also show the barcode so you can scan the link into your mobile. Here's my link shortened - http://qr.cx/6H1

Features:

• Scan the link to your mobile via QR-Code
• Bookmarklet for shortening
• Character length of 9

Out of 5 I give this site a 1

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p.ly

Here's another website in beta, but on the surface it seems fully functional. These guy's have a very unique optional free feature called expiring links, you click in a box and a nice looking calender pops up.

You can set the link to expire at any time, even a few years from now(assuming they're still around 3-5 years from now). You can also password protect the link which is an interesting option, and you can also make a custom url.

After you've created a link, you're presented with a few buttons - copy, test, tweet it and you can also click a share button to access and share it on your favorite social networks. There is a paid option called Pro account, this allows you to submit 1000 URLs at a time, edit your short URL(expiry date, redirect, password). They also have a desktop client where you can... you guessed it, shrink URLs from the comfort of your own desktop".

Features:

• Default character count of 10
• Custom short link (Free)
• Expiring link (Free)
• Password protection (Free)
• Submit up to 1000 URLs at a time (Paid)
• Real-time stats (Paid)
• Customize shortened link (Paid)
• Edit shortened URL(expiry date redirect and password)
• Character length of 10

Out of 5 I give this a 4 (I would of rated this site higher if they were not charging for URL stats)

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j.mp

Looks like this site is owned by Bit.ly, looks professional with a nice color scheme. They give you a signup option which gives you the ability to customize your short URLs and share them. Here's an example short link I created at the site - http://j.mp/eGsNsp , and the stats page - http://j.mp/eGsNsp+

Features:

• Share, track and analyze your links
• Real time statistics page
• Character length of 11

Out of 5 I give this site a 4

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l.pr

I had a bit of fun with this one, that's cause they allow you to include a comment in your short link.

Here's what I did - http://l.pr/a4779q/oh_my_gosh_this_is_too_cool,lets_see_how_long_i_can_make_this_url_before_it_gets_rejected! (lol).

They also give you the short link version http://l.pr/a4779q

Features:

• Create short links with an included comment
• Stats page (pretty basic at the moment but the sites still in beta)
• Character length of 11

Out of 5 I give this site a 5 (for being different)

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x.vu

This site's in Beta, but it's pleasing to the eye(if that matters to you). The short links work, and you can make your short link shorter by typing your own personal tag which is what I did - http://x.vu/two4 . My main gripe with this service is that they don't provide click statistics, but they are still in Beta so give them time.

Features:

• Can use personalized tags
• Link protection (whatever that is.If you know, let me know)
• Optional widget for your website, so your visitors can make x.vu short links from you're webpage's
• Character length of 11

Out of 5 I give this site a 4 (Mainly for the ultra low character count, if using optional tag)

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Time for fun, and we now enter:

shadyurl.com

Quote from website: "Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening"

Just look at what they did to my lovely wordpress permalink, they turned http://www.power-profits.com/advertising-your-blog-several-techniques-to-do-it-at-no-expense/ INTO - http://5z8.info/b00bs_s7u6x_--INITIATE-CREDIT-CARD-XFER-- (huh, say what!), and they also had a shorter option: http://5z8.info/boobs_wgl (A tad less vulgar I think, lol).

And here's another gem to make you squirm - http://5z8.info/malicious-cookie_d5d2_hateminorities

Mmm... I think the owner of shadyurl.com has got issues.

So if you're into making long URLs not fit for you're mother to click on, shadyurl.com might be for you.

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Conclusion

I don't have a favorite SUS out of the one's reviewed, but most seemed to have 1 or 2 features that the other lacked. They all seem to do a good job of shortening links, and some of them do it differently to others.

Do you know of an extra short SUS not mentioned here?