What are several of the advantages of using URL shorteners? Probably the main benefit is the fact that a short URL is easier for copying into an email, a forum post, or a post on Twitter, where the poster is restricted to 140 characters for the whole post. Especially if you want a Twitter post to be passed along by others, you want the address to be as brief as is possible to make room for their introductory words.

Another benefit of using URL shortening services is to create URLs which will be read aloud, so that people may very well spell them out. The URL shortening sites create nice, human-readable URLs, however often create longer URLs for readable purposes than once they are strictly shortening an address to minimize the number of characters it contains.

The concept of shortening long URLs goes back to at least the year 2001. The first “breakout” shortening service was Tiny URL, which launched in 2002. Today, there are actually over 100 shortener sites.

Making a URL shorter requires using http redirection to make use of a short domain linked to the web page with the longer address. Techniques for doing this include generating keys in the numerical base 36, which assumes 26 letters and 10 digits, or base 62, which includes 10 digits, upper case and lower case letters. Another technique uses what is known as a hash function, and some shorteners use random number generators to create key sequences.

You’ll also find that URL shortening services have evolved a whole lot in recent times which add many additional features to make using url shorteners even better. One nice function is whenever you shorten a URL you will be able to keep track of that URL and check statistics on it such as how many clicks you’ve got received.

Another advantage of these services is that you will start to find some of them offer you to earn extra money by using your short urls on other web pages. When people click on your short URL on twitter or any other social sites they’re going to go to your URL but can even have an advertisement and you can also earn money over the URL shortening service.

Users of shortening services should be aware that some services and their products are blocked in certain places. By way of example, Saudi Arabia blocks some link shortening services, as does the social site MySpace. Panera Bread locations block URL-shortening access in its Free Url Shorten WiFi networks, and Craigslist won’t accept some shortened links.

If you intend to employ a short URL service, you could be wise to always preview the shortened address before posting it. There have been instances of services being hacked and redirecting users in unexpected ways.

For the casual poster on sites like Twitter and Facebook, short addresses are very handy for keeping your posts brief. But it is always a wise idea to test out any short URLs you generate using a shortening site before posting them to make sure they go where you want them to.