100 iterations instead of 10, removed puts: TinyURL: 0.43s/req bit.ly: 0.22s/req is.gd: 0.05s/req That's close enough to my original values to not matter.

100 iterations instead of 10, removed puts: TinyURL: 0.43s/req bit.ly: 0.22s/req is.gd: 0.05s/req That's close enough to my original values to not matter. It appears that the time is all spent waiting for the site to return.