Comparison of Popular Twitter Shorteners
When you only have 140 characters to convey a message, linking to other websites on Twitter can easily eat up your quota. That's why a handful of link-shortening services have popped up to make linking to long URLs easier. It doesn't really matter which one you choose, unless you want to track statistics on your links, in which case you'll want to choose a shortener that offers that feature. Twitter also helps protect users from maliciously shortened links with its t.co service.
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Bitly
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Bitly, which can be accessed at either bit.ly or bitly.com, offers the ability to create an account to track the number of clicks on a link you create or other statistics. Copy and paste a link into the box at the top of the page, or install a Bitly browser extension to make shortening even more convenient. Link your account with Twitter to compose tweets with your shortened links right from the Twitter homepage. Bitly also offers an iPhone news application called News.me. Another shortener called J.mp, used by some Twitter applications, is owned by Bitly.
Goo.gl
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Goo.gl is Google's link-shortening service. As with Bitly, you can sign in with your Google account to track statistics on your links; analytics for individual links are also made public. You must manually copy and paste Goo.gl links into a tweet, as Goo.gl does not connect with your Twitter account the way Bitly does.
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Ow.ly/Ht.ly
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Links beginning with Ow.ly or Ht.ly are connected with the Twitter application Hootsuite. Users of Hootsuite's "social dashboard" service can choose whether to shorten their links using Ow.ly or Ht.ly; the difference is that Ht.ly links include Hootsuite's "social bar" at the top of the page, while Ow.ly links just provide a straight redirect. You can also create a link directly from the Ow.ly homepage without creating a Hootsuite account; however, this feature does not feature any link tracking or the other social analytics that come with full Hootsuite access.
T.co
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If you paste a link directly into a tweet on Twitter.com without shortening it first, your followers will see a truncated link that identifies its destination. However, when you click one of these links, it will be temporarily redirected through a t.co link before sending you to the linked site. Twitter implemented this service to cut down on disguised links to phishing scams, malware and other damaging websites. If the link you click is suspicious, you'll be warned before you proceed. Unlike other link shorteners, you can't use t.co to shorten a link yourself.
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