I’m a big fan of Twitter – the microblogging service: what we do on twitter is post little updates (limited to 140 characters) about what we’re doing, thinking or thinking of doing. We tell this to all the people who follow us (they tend to be random folks). It’s all nerdoo-fun really. Yes, you may laugh. I have no life.

One of the most common ways of posting an update – called tweets – is to share a link to a website which you may find funny, entertaining or maybe just informative for what it is.

The SHORTEST Link Shortener, after the jump! Click on “Read the rest of this entry”.

140 Characters and Link Shorteners

In that case, sending out a really long link like this: http://artsyhands.com/2009/08/kids-survive-chatting-msn-messenger/ (that’s 66 characters) can cause problems putting the message through within 140 characters.

And this is precisely from where, Link shorteners or URL Shorteners as they are called; stemmed from.

Using the link shortening service u.nu, I can shorten the above link to this: http://u.nu/87qz. Down from 74 characters to a simple 16. Amazing, no?

So how is this useful to you? It really is of no use unless you use twitter. Otherwise, it’s largely a gimmick.

Last night, I went looking for the absolute shortest of link shortening services. Sure, there’s the TinyURLs and bit.lys and whatnot, they’re all fine and dandy but when you want to feel like the biggest and smartest of nerds, you will want to show your tweeps the shortest link.

How short can URLs and domain names really get?

Three characters is the minimum limit. The most popular three name link shorteners are 3.ly, u.nu, x.vu, 5.gp, r.im and a.gp. The shortest shortened URLs can go as low as 13 characters!

In the unnecessary hunt for the shortest link shorteners, I found three services:

tweak.tk

What this URL shortener does is make the URL you want to be shortened into.. get this: an ACTUAL website with a random domain name like this: http://fskl3.tk <– That’s down to 15 characters! Why they give away domain names for free is best guessed by Wikipedia:

Tokelau provides any interested individuals .tk domain names free of charge. These free domains are pointed to Tokelau servers which simply redirect traffic.

Tokelau is a small territory in New Zealand. Their internet level code .tk can be registered for free, unlimted number of times from this page!

However, tweak.tk is basically just unreliable. Out of the 10 clicks I made to my shortened address, only 3 passed through. Not recommended.

tinyarro.ws

At first glance, this simply seems like just another URL shortener, but it is, in fact the absolutely shortest URL shortener! What tinyarro.ws does is make use of special characters instead of alpha-numerics. Have a look at the link I shortened:

http://?.ws/?

Ahhh! I wish the special characters that tinyarro.ws uses would be compatible with other softwares because most twitter clients just don’t support them. :’(

Clicked on that link above! See? Even our software doesn’t support it.

3.ly

Threely is yet another Link shortener. Reliable and short URLs. Just what your average joe needs. You can even choose a custom ID!

http://3.ly/JjS <— 15 characters.

For the fact that it doesn’t let you down, 3.ly is highly recommended!

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The WINAR

In retrospective, let’s look at all the links we shortened:

Original Link: http://artsyhands.com/2009/08/kids-survive-chatting-msn-messenger/ 66 characters

Tweak.tk: http://fskl3.tk 15 characters

tinyarro.ws: http://?.ws/? 13 characters

3.ly: http://3.ly/JjS 15 characters

We have a WINAR! 3.ly wins just cause it’s reliable because in the end, that is what truly matters!

So go ahead, shorten that link! Get the Short URL Firefox add-on to trim URLs with ease.

Waisybabu