Using Short URL: The Basics and the Lowdown on Web Address Shortening  

One of the so-called Internet basics is the use of short URL. By this, it means the URL of a site should be short enough for people to remember and type. But not every website has a short URL-and in fact, not every website should have one. This is because of the existence of web forwarding services that help webmasters by giving existence pages online with an alternative URL that exists together with the site’s original address. Web forwarding is used not only as a means to have a short URL but also as a tool for affiliate marketing.

Today, there are several URL “shorteners,” so speak. Their application and process are very easy, fast, and effective. All one has to do in input a URL and they will be given a relatively shorter URL address for any website. This business of getting short URL is very essential today, but it is rather limited and not extensive as web forwarding or link cloaking.

Short URL is often used as an alternative address for pages that have very long ones. For instance, the URL of certain pages in news websites often is often very long, making it to remember, pass around through other means beyond the Internet. Posting it on an email message or Internet forums often makes the whole text unpleasant due to its length.  This was the first purpose of service providers that shortens URLs for redirection. They do not cloak the URL; once someone clicks the link of the short URL, the person automatically sees the original URL of the user site.

However, such providers have limited use. Most of these services do not allow users to make their own short URL; they are merely given a URL that has the URL of the provider followed by a series of characters that bear no resemblance or clues to the content of the site. An example of this is TinyURL. While this site provides adequate service when it comes to shortening URLs, they cannot be used for other purposes beyond that. Many users of social networking sites (like Twitter or Facebook) use such service to shorten links they want to share without making the text too awkward due to the length.

Also, people have become cautious of such short URL, especially when the address is composed of characters that do not tell the content of the site. Websites such as Yahoo and Wikipedia have banned the posting of such URL because they can be used to cloak websites that contain malicious content.

This is why URL “shorteners” cannot really replace web forwarding service providers; especially the redirection needed for the site should be professional. Short URLs are efficient when used just for that-to shorten URLs. But for affiliate marketing and website efficiency purposes, it may not have as much benefits. But just the same, short URL or the practice of shortening URLs is still indispensable and useful-if only used for the right reasons and the proper purposes.