What ’ s a link shortener, anyway?

I posted a survey about the likelihood of users clicking a charity or fundraising link that had been shortened with a tool like tinyURL, bit.ly or j.mp, or buff.ly. To my surprise, there was a comment from one follower telling me that he didn’t know what a link shortener was. Well, link shorteners are online tools that convert long website addresses, (URLs) into shorter, more manageable links. These shortened URLs redirect users to the original, longer URL when clicked. Many sites, like Amazon, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Youtube, have link shorteners to allow you to copy and share a shortened version of an internal link from their services. I’ve discussed previously how you can use your own web domains to shorten URLs and I do this a lot so that my social media links follow this format: sciencebase.com/social Link shorteners serve several purposes: Space-saving: Shortened URLs are particularly useful in platforms with character limits, such as Twitter, where every character counts towards the overall limit. They allow users to share links without worrying about exceeding character constraints. Improved readability: Long URLs can be cumbersome and difficult to share, especially in printed materials or verbally. Shortened URLs are more concise and easier to transmit. Tracking and analytics: Many URL shorteners offer tracking features, allowing users to monitor the number of clicks, geographic location of users, and referral sources. This data can be valuable for analys...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Social Media Source Type: blogs