Short links

If you've ever told friends or family about an event on Twitter, you've probably run into a problem that a lot of other people are having: incredibly long links that take up all your typing space! But there is a solution, and it's the ability to turn your really lengthy link into a much shorter link. With a short link, you can say a lot more in your update.

A long link and a short link can mean the difference between:

Example 1

Our wedding was so much fun! I just wanted to let everyone know the wedding pictures can be found here! "http://gallery.weddingpics1.com/sher" - See the broken link?!

Example 2

Our wedding was so much fun! I just wanted to let everyone know the wedding pictures can be found here! "http://short.er/wedding-pics" - Notice the shorter link.

The first example uses the type of lengthy, ugly link you're usually given by websites to help you find things, such as your wedding gallery. These links are usually so long that you can't fit it into a tweet or even a Facebook status update.

The second example uses a much shorter link which allows the writer to type their full message as well as include the link so people can see what they're talking about.

And aside from taking up all your room for typing, long links are just downright ugly. No one wants to see that long string of letters, dashes, slashes, and numbers clogging up the status updates.

How to Shorten Long Links

It could hardly be easier to shorten your long links so that you can say more in status updates. There are a few websites that will do the job for you. All you do is paste your lengthy link into a box on the website, and the website hands you a very short link to use. When people click on the new, shorter link, they are taken to the original long link. This makes it possible for you to update your friends and family with an update that includes a link, and still have plenty of typing space for what you need to say!

Short links