A short presentation I had on how Url shortening services could be used and why they are important. I use 3 services as examples knowing full well that there are others out there.

1. URL Shortening Services
Presented By
Altan Khendup
On May 15th 2009
Twitter/FriendFeed: madmongol

2.  What are url shortening services?
 Why are they useful?
 Some service examples
◦ TinyURL
◦ Bit.ly
◦ Tr.im

3.  As their name implies they shorten URLs
 For example…
◦ http://www.cio.com/article/492450/To_Avoid_Failu
re_First_Define_Success
◦ Can be shortened to http://tinyurl.com/ohgmlc

4.  Long URLs are difficult to manage
◦ Not sure if you missed a character
◦ Takes too much space on services like Twitter
 Shorter is better
◦ Easier to remember
◦ Easier to manage
◦ Less characters being used which is useful to
Twitter and other similar services

8.  Pros
◦ One of the first shortening services
◦ Has a proven track record
◦ Simple and easy to use
 Cons
◦ Not very feature rich
 No metrics
 No history

16.  Pros
◦ Has lots of metrics
◦ Simple and easy to use
◦ Works with several different services built-in
 Cons
◦ Relatively new compared to TinyUrl
◦ Maybe a bit more information than most users want
or need

27.  Pros
◦ Has lots of easy-to-read metrics
◦ Simple and easy to use
◦ Easier to navigate than other services
 Cons
◦ Relatively new compared to TinyUrl or Bit.Ly
◦ Not as much metadata as other services

28.  For micro-blogging services like Twitter
saves characters
 Makes references to URLs much easier since
shorter
 Services can be fairly rich in metrics
◦ Use to see who many people visit, clicks, etc.
◦ Historical perspective of use
 Can see what people find interesting in what
you share
 Many other uses out there for these services