When convenience is the key, Google URL Shortener, and other URL shortening services might help.

Google has joined the ranks for URL shortening providers with it goo.gl redirection service, to bolster its Google Apps service. If you use Google Apps you might have discovered the web address (http://) part for documents can get a bit long, so the idea of a URL shortener is to take a shorter address and point it to the longer address using a behind the scenes lookup, kind of like a short dial on your telephone.

There are already a number of providers offering a URL shortening service including bit.ly, snipurl, tr.im, cli.gs, ow.ly, tinyurl, twurl, and su.pr. To use a URL shortening service you would usually enter a long web page address into the providers website and the service would return a much shorter address, for example, using the Su.pr service, operated by StumbleUpon, the following web page address http://www.jasonslater.co.uk/2009/12/21/safe-interactive-learning-websites-for-children/ gets shortened to the much more manageable http://su.pr/1F05jE, and both links lead to the same place (albeit the su.pr takes a slight detour). 

There are a number of advantages to URL Shortening:

• It is easier to remember
• It is faster to type
• It is simpler to use with services such as Twitter
• The service provider can usually measure the success of click throughs and provide other services to complement the shorter URL

There are some disadvantages to shortening a web address

• It is less obvious where the link will lead
• If might import your brand reach (showing goo.gl instead of yourbrand.com for example)
• If the URL shortening service fails or is abandoned your links will stop working
• Using a shortening service could add a slight delay as the link is redirected

To learn more about it visit the Google URL Shortener website.

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