How to Shorten the Length of Your URL and Make It Twitter Friendly with Tinyurl

Courtesy of Tinyurl.com

All too often we see web addresses that are very long which become really annoying and ridiculous to use in forums and in emails. Long URLs break in forwarded emails and in some plain text email clients. This easily leads to errors when someone attempts to use the URL you provided or makes it more difficult to reach information. If you use Twitter, it's even worse because there is a 140 character limit. TinyURL is an online service used to shorten Web addresses. The service provides you with a short URL that points to the address you provide.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Open your preferred Web browser and go to the tinyurl.com website. Enter the Web address you want to shorten in the "Enter a long URL to make tiny" field.

2. Enter a custom alias in the field provided. The custom alias is optional and accepts any combination of letters, numbers and dashes that hasn't been used before. Click the "Make TinyURL!" button.

3. Click and drag the mouse over the TinyURL provided. Press the "Ctrl" and "C" keys to copy it. Paste it into your twitter message.

Tips & Warnings

• These work great when forwarding your friends directions from maps, links to particular images, or anything else that may have a long web address!

• Each month, Tinyurl converts large urls to smaller ones over 1.5 BILLION times, so don't be shy, and take advantage of this wonder and free tool.

References

• TinyURL: Example