3 ms·

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

by gaius 9y ago

fabiospampinato 9y ago
Easier to remember URLs, and statistics about how many people visits them.
blakesterz 9y ago
I use them in presentations, it's easier to have a really short URL on the slide for people. I'm not sure how common that is, but it's really handy. Other than that, I've not used them for anything.
themihai 9y ago
They are easy to share/spell? though most of them are not that easy.
kenrick95 9y ago
At posters, e.g. link to register for an event.
izietto 9y ago
I use them to share maps links on chat, for example this: https://goo.gl/maps/6zJsoaCTgTD2 https://goo.gl/maps/6zJsoaCTgTD2 is much better than this: https://www.google.it/maps/place/Presidio+di+Francavilla+Fontana+-+Ceglie+Messapica/@40.5366675,17.5801034,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x1346f5de5e89f9e1:0x511a585af2d8ead2!8m2!3d40.5396465!4d17.5784361 https://www.google.it/maps/place/Presidio+di+Francavilla+Fon...
cdax 9y ago
They’re also good for including in SMS text messages. Or print media. Or for typing into browsers on devices with sub-optimal keyboards (from my own experience, I can think of the Xbox and the Kindle)
- dordoka 9y ago
  Can confirm that SMSs are still a thing in enterprise. Several of my clients use SMS a lot. Given the character limits, they tend to prefer short links so they can give more info in the actual text. We've just migrated from goo.gl to bit.ly on two of them.
onychomys 9y ago
I use my favorite one just for the laughs: http://www.shadyurl.com http://www.shadyurl.com
- dbg31415 9y ago
  * Kilobytely: The URL Lengthener || http://kilobytely.com/ http://kilobytely.com/ http://kilobytely.com/sh6vk9ync1qf4tnc1qf4ti7wlazowlazod2rg5uj8x3sh6vk9ync1qf4d2rg5uj8xmb0pej8xmb0pe3sh6vkqf4ti7wlazod2ruj8xmb0pe3sh6vqf4ti7wlazod2rlazod2rg5uj8xmvk9ync1qf4ti7w9ync1qf4ti7wlaxmb0pe3sh6vk9yxmb0pe3sh6vk9y5uj8xmb0pe3sh6i7wlazod2rg5ujync1qf4ti7wlazti7wlazod2rg5ue3sh6vk9ync1qfnc1qf4ti7wlazoqf4ti7wlazod2rmb0pe3sh6vk9ynti7wlazod2rg5uync1qf4ti7wlazzod2rg5uj8xmb0k9ync1qf4ti7wle3sh6vk9ync1qfync1qf4ti7wlazvk9ync1qf4ti7wj8xmb0pe3sh6vkti7wlazod2rg5u7wlazod2rg5uj8f4ti7wlazod2rgsh6vk9ync1qf4t8xmb0pe3sh6vk9lazod2rg5uj8xmrg5uj8xmb0pe3s3sh6vk9ync1qf4h6vk9ync1qf4tipe3sh6vk9ync1qb0pe3sh6vk9ync1qf4ti7wlazod2ync1qf4ti7wlazi7wlazod2rg5uj4ti7wlazod2rg5g5uj8xmb0pe3sh0pe3sh6vk9ync1rg5uj8xmb0pe3sti7wlazod2rg5uod2rg5uj8xmb0pwlazod2rg5uj8x9ync1qf4ti7wlaxmb0pe3sh6vk9yqf4ti7wlazod2r4ti7wlazod2rg51qf4ti7wlazod2qf4ti7wlazod2r3sh6vk9ync1qf4od2rg5uj8xmb0p7wlazod2rg5uj8wlazod2rg5uj8xe3sh6vk9ync1qfwlazod2rg5uj8x1qf4ti7wlazod21qf4ti7wlazod2wlazod2rg5uj8xync1qf4ti7wlazzod2rg5uj8xmb0c1qf4ti7wlazodb0pe3sh6vk9ync http://kilobytely.com/sh6vk9ync1qf4tnc1qf4ti7wlazowlazod2rg5...
dbg31415 9y ago
Situations where I want users to go to a long URL but they need to type it, or tracking. I want to know how many times my CraigsList ad was viewed, easy I'll just use a short URL for the image and see how many times the image got loaded.
neya 9y ago
One of the main use cases, and many vendors still do pitch this as a selling point - Analytics. You can put in custom tracking code (www.example.com/landingpage?utm_campaign=xyz&utm_source=abc) and share the same link (eg. a blog post) on different channels (facebook, email, youtube, etc) with different tracking parameters on the fly, so your analytics software can easily pick it up.
dsparkman 9y ago
They are good for plain text emails, since a lot of email systems mangle plain text emails at ~ col 72.
xd1936 9y ago
Interestingly, Twitter has it's own built-in t.co URL shortener, so it's not even necessary for that. All links in a tweet are automatically 23 characters.
qwerty456127 9y ago
On some forums/CMSes bare links to YouTube are converted to full-sized previews automatically and you can't disable this behaviour. You just make a piece of text a plain hyperlink to a YouTube video and once you click "submit" the parser comes into the play and a huge picture appears in the middle of your text instead of a couple of words. Masking the link with goo.gl solves the problem and adds an extra goodie letting you see how many people have followed your link. Shortened URLs are also easier to type by hand / read aloud and look prettier visually.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  In short: working around broken 3rd party software, and tracking.
essayist 9y ago
Situations where a long and nasty url is printed, say in a church bulletin, and so has to be transcribed by eye to be useful. E.g. imagine a non tech savvy person having to read and type in https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/20f094ea5a928af85-fmaundy https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/20f094ea5a928af85-f... to sign up for a church supper. is.gd/ourchurch-supper2018 is so much easier.

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

by gaius 9y ago

Can anyone explain to me what is the use case for URL shorteners? Other than for size limited messages like Twitter I guess.

fabiospampinato 9y ago

Easier to remember URLs, and statistics about how many people visits them.

blakesterz 9y ago

I use them in presentations, it's easier to have a really short URL on the slide for people. I'm not sure how common that is, but it's really handy. Other than that, I've not used them for anything.

themihai 9y ago

They are easy to share/spell? though most of them are not that easy.

kenrick95 9y ago

At posters, e.g. link to register for an event.

izietto 9y ago

I use them to share maps links on chat, for example this: https://goo.gl/maps/6zJsoaCTgTD2 https://goo.gl/maps/6zJsoaCTgTD2 is much better than this: https://www.google.it/maps/place/Presidio+di+Francavilla+Fontana+-+Ceglie+Messapica/@40.5366675,17.5801034,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x1346f5de5e89f9e1:0x511a585af2d8ead2!8m2!3d40.5396465!4d17.5784361 https://www.google.it/maps/place/Presidio+di+Francavilla+Fon...

cdax 9y ago

They’re also good for including in SMS text messages. Or print media. Or for typing into browsers on devices with sub-optimal keyboards (from my own experience, I can think of the Xbox and the Kindle)

dordoka 9y ago
Can confirm that SMSs are still a thing in enterprise. Several of my clients use SMS a lot. Given the character limits, they tend to prefer short links so they can give more info in the actual text. We've just migrated from goo.gl to bit.ly on two of them.

onychomys 9y ago

I use my favorite one just for the laughs: http://www.shadyurl.com http://www.shadyurl.com

dbg31415 9y ago
* Kilobytely: The URL Lengthener || http://kilobytely.com/ http://kilobytely.com/ http://kilobytely.com/sh6vk9ync1qf4tnc1qf4ti7wlazowlazod2rg5uj8x3sh6vk9ync1qf4d2rg5uj8xmb0pej8xmb0pe3sh6vkqf4ti7wlazod2ruj8xmb0pe3sh6vqf4ti7wlazod2rlazod2rg5uj8xmvk9ync1qf4ti7w9ync1qf4ti7wlaxmb0pe3sh6vk9yxmb0pe3sh6vk9y5uj8xmb0pe3sh6i7wlazod2rg5ujync1qf4ti7wlazti7wlazod2rg5ue3sh6vk9ync1qfnc1qf4ti7wlazoqf4ti7wlazod2rmb0pe3sh6vk9ynti7wlazod2rg5uync1qf4ti7wlazzod2rg5uj8xmb0k9ync1qf4ti7wle3sh6vk9ync1qfync1qf4ti7wlazvk9ync1qf4ti7wj8xmb0pe3sh6vkti7wlazod2rg5u7wlazod2rg5uj8f4ti7wlazod2rgsh6vk9ync1qf4t8xmb0pe3sh6vk9lazod2rg5uj8xmrg5uj8xmb0pe3s3sh6vk9ync1qf4h6vk9ync1qf4tipe3sh6vk9ync1qb0pe3sh6vk9ync1qf4ti7wlazod2ync1qf4ti7wlazi7wlazod2rg5uj4ti7wlazod2rg5g5uj8xmb0pe3sh0pe3sh6vk9ync1rg5uj8xmb0pe3sti7wlazod2rg5uod2rg5uj8xmb0pwlazod2rg5uj8x9ync1qf4ti7wlaxmb0pe3sh6vk9yqf4ti7wlazod2r4ti7wlazod2rg51qf4ti7wlazod2qf4ti7wlazod2r3sh6vk9ync1qf4od2rg5uj8xmb0p7wlazod2rg5uj8wlazod2rg5uj8xe3sh6vk9ync1qfwlazod2rg5uj8x1qf4ti7wlazod21qf4ti7wlazod2wlazod2rg5uj8xync1qf4ti7wlazzod2rg5uj8xmb0c1qf4ti7wlazodb0pe3sh6vk9ync http://kilobytely.com/sh6vk9ync1qf4tnc1qf4ti7wlazowlazod2rg5...

dbg31415 9y ago

Situations where I want users to go to a long URL but they need to type it, or tracking. I want to know how many times my CraigsList ad was viewed, easy I'll just use a short URL for the image and see how many times the image got loaded.

neya 9y ago

One of the main use cases, and many vendors still do pitch this as a selling point - Analytics. You can put in custom tracking code (www.example.com/landingpage?utm_campaign=xyz&utm_source=abc) and share the same link (eg. a blog post) on different channels (facebook, email, youtube, etc) with different tracking parameters on the fly, so your analytics software can easily pick it up.

dsparkman 9y ago

They are good for plain text emails, since a lot of email systems mangle plain text emails at ~ col 72.

xd1936 9y ago

Interestingly, Twitter has it's own built-in t.co URL shortener, so it's not even necessary for that. All links in a tweet are automatically 23 characters.

qwerty456127 9y ago

On some forums/CMSes bare links to YouTube are converted to full-sized previews automatically and you can't disable this behaviour. You just make a piece of text a plain hyperlink to a YouTube video and once you click "submit" the parser comes into the play and a huge picture appears in the middle of your text instead of a couple of words. Masking the link with goo.gl solves the problem and adds an extra goodie letting you see how many people have followed your link. Shortened URLs are also easier to type by hand / read aloud and look prettier visually.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
In short: working around broken 3rd party software, and tracking.

essayist 9y ago

Situations where a long and nasty url is printed, say in a church bulletin, and so has to be transcribed by eye to be useful. E.g. imagine a non tech savvy person having to read and type in https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/20f094ea5a928af85-fmaundy https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/20f094ea5a928af85-f... to sign up for a church supper. is.gd/ourchurch-supper2018 is so much easier.