How to Change Long URL to Short URL

Reduce the length of cumbersome URLs with an online URL-shortening service.

If you find an entertaining or interesting website, image or online video then you might want to share the Web page with your friends and contacts. All Web pages have a unique Uniform Resource Locator address, and some URLs are very long with a string of off-putting numbers and letters. Sometimes sharing a long URL is impractical, particularly on social networking sites and micro-blogging services, such as Twitter, that limit the number of characters you can include in your posts or updates. You can reduce the length of website address URLs with a free, online URL-shortening service.

Instructions

1. Launch your Web browser, and go to the Web page that you want to share.

2. Highlight the Web page URL in the address bar of your Web browser. Press the "Ctrl" and "C" keys on your PC computer keyboard to copy the URL address.

3. Navigate to your preferred online URL-shortening service, such as the Google URL Shortener, Bitly or Tiny URL (see Resources).

4. Paste the long URL address you copied into the URL input field by pressing "Ctrl" and "V" on your computer keyboard. Click the "Shorten" or "Submit" button beside the input field.

5. Highlight and copy the shortened URL. You can now paste this into an email message, online forum or social networking site post. When clicked, the shortened URL will automatically forward users to the original Web page with the long URL.

Tips & Warnings

• Some URL-shortening services allow you to track your links so that you can see who has clicked the link. To access this service, return to the URL service and click the "Details" or "Information" link beside the URL you shortened.

Resources

• Google: URL Shortener
• Bitly: Shortern, Share and Track Your Links
• Tiny URL