Ever thought about why the web community suddenly started using the URL shorteners? Why in the first place use a URL shortener at all when the webpage/site has already been encrypted in specific codes by designers? Why has this trend starting to go uphill nowadays?

These are pertinent questions that any web user and eCommerce businesses should be well aware of. Today we shall consider the pros and cons of this whole process of URL shortening exercise and then on proceed to consider some alternatives to the popular service Bit.ly.

URL shortening or Uniform Resource Locator is a technique whereby the domain name containing the link address is shortened in length. The apparent reasons for this move are -

- Aesthetic beauty since long URL links give a dirty look to a webpage. In order to fine tune the appearance of a content page, links are tailored.

- As is the usage norms laid down by social media platforms like Twitter, long URLs cannot be pasted in tweets due to the limited character length. With businesses going social increasingly, short links facilitate SEO activity by managing link size.

- Long URLs are difficult to memorize, type and distribute across the web. One wrong action, may actually misdirect traffic from the webpage that you want the audience to be redirected. Small links are logically easy to copy and share.

- Short URLs can essentially be fitted with all the relevant data simply as well as the analytics through the number of clicks can be easily obtained.

- For marketers, URL shorteners can be encoded as 2-D QR codes that reduces the code's printable area.

Balancing out the positives are the obvious negatives that come with URL shortening.

- Linkrot is the most susceptible danger that webpages are prone to. Once links are reduced in size it is easy for spammers and Black hats to take advantage of the situation for malicious web activity. In case of a link rot, a number of links are redirected to pages that are in a non functional status. It usually results in the 404 error, seen by many of us often.

- URL shortening is a short term option. Once the websites are left without the updates, the risk increases and likewise businesses can be at a loss since the stub links are taking away the traffic away from your site.

- Not all URL shorteners are reliable since the links in many cases use foreign domain names and fall outside the ambit of national law making body's control. Privacy issues are prime problem in such cases.

- Spam being viral, there are platforms that debar using certain URL shortening services that you might prefer. It is an unneccessay hindrance to your work. For example, Twitter is known to have made Bit.ly as the default shortner for links with more than 26 characters. Services like TinyURL have been blocked in certain countries due to the spamming activities that occurs using its service.

- A shortened link, for many people is an indicator of a unwaranted promotional gimmick. In fact many ISPs send out warning messages to users from clicking such URLs and block them automatically.

Having taken a wholesome view of the service that most of us consider easy and convienient, URL shortening should be done with much caution. Bit.ly is one of the most popular URL shortening service that we use in personal as well as professional postings. No doubt it is a free and easy to use service that archives all your links systematically. However, reliance on a single service is a risky proposition.

Here are some useful Bit.ly alternatives if you are looking for options than the regular ones.

1. Goo.gl

Do you need a trust certificate better than the Google stamp on it? Goo.gl is the official URL shortner of Google that provides insightful stats and link-click details in the form of referrals, browsers used and countries with maximum use. Since Google is the most widely used mailing service, users can easily sign in from their Google Account to use this service also. The links are archived spanning from two days to the current day with monitoring functions to check a link's progress. From the business aspect, the advantage of using their shortened URLs is that it allows users to hide affiliate tracking information i.e those who want to be traced in a not-so-outright manner are given a layer of safety.
The greatest plus with using this shortening service is its cross platform integration. Hosted officially by HootSuite, it can easily be synced with your Twitter account as well. Not only does it shorten text files but images as well, that can be shared directly on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Before Bit.ly was popularized, it was probably TinyURL that was all the rage. With its simple, no activation or sign up hassles involved, condensing URLs of blogs, emails, websites for purposes of hiding information or convenience sake, it is still an option that many prefer.
Do look out and try these alternatives. You can let us know your user experiences and even rate these individual services. Be sure to leave us a detailed reply or a thought that crossed your mind, reading this article.

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