I've been using TinyURL for awhile, and it's a good companion to SLURL, since Second Life URLs can get so very loooong. I tend to run my SLURLs through a Firefox toolbar tool so the newly-tiny URLs can be copied-and-pasted for brevity — this is especially important for emails, where line breaks mangle lengthy addresses.
Recently, I found out about Snipr (also known through several other names like the slightly longer "Snipurl"), and appreciate that I can create a custom, memorable nickname instead of relying on a cryptic jumble of letters & numbers, no matter how short. (Looks like they've been around since 2000, so I'm surprised I didn't hear of them earlier.)
Another plus about Snipr is you can take a few seconds to setup an account and manage your "snips"; especially useful if you have several (or more) shortened URLs you refer to frequently. For example, this morning, I created http://snipr.com/torley, which redirects to a SLURL to Watermelinden Land in Second Life.
Even better, you can change where a Snipr-condensed URL points to: I made several changes to my SLURL description which changed the URL, and no problem, I pasted in the long URL, pressed "Snip it!", and http://snipr.com/torley now redirected to the new address. Very convenient, prevent broken links, and TinyURL doesn't offer such a service.
On the minus side for Snipr, TinyURL does have a Preview Feature that lets you see the actual URL before you go there, avoiding sneaky redirects.
I remember a long time ago, when TORLEY.COM was known as http://listen.to/t (it still redirects here with the old title, and an ad banner on top :p), and it was a lot clunkier and inconvenient to setup something so simple as a redirect.
I'll keep using Snipr, but so far, after looking at other alternatives like dwarfURL (which offers clickthrough stats — [UPDATE @ 2007-12-31] I discovered Snipr has even nicer stats!), I prefer Snipr the most.
Do you use URL shortening service(s), and if so, which one's your favorite?
Thanks Torley for this tip!
I often use http://t-r.cc - especially on Twitter where a few characters sometimes really matter
Is there any way to shorten secondlife:// addresses? It would be useful for SL residents, but they are usually filtered by URL shortening services for security reasons.
Tip:
you can offer instant teleport to a whole group using the chat with an address like secondlife://app/teleport/Vulcano/85/137/31
Howcome more people don't use the secondlife:// format tags instead of SLURL? SLURLs are okay for events or small shops, but terrible for when you actually want to go somewhere.
Slurls are great because people who don't have SL can follow the link and see something meaningful. I imagine they are more search-engine friendly. I also paste slurls in my chat window often and click through since vista constantly asks me if i want to run a program through the web page.
I can't wait for the day when you click a slurl and you'll see an embedded control showing a 3-D version of a live view of buildings and people in the location you are about to go to. It would make for a great way to preview before you go so you know what you are about to get yourself into.
[...] clipped from torley.com [...]
I like xrl.us - short and sweet, has a handy bookmarklet.
@Opensource: I'll check out t-r.cc … what a unique URL. I don't know how to shorten "secondlife://" addresses outside of a usual URL shortening service working, but sometimes I know they only accept "http://".
@Dedric, thanks for helping Crissa — that's indeed the big reason — and hopefully that clarifies things. A lot of people out there still don't have Second Life and it's nice to introduce them. If you use a SLURL inworld, nice thing is it opens the World Map to that location.
@Yoz: Wikkid, and great to see ya here! I shall check it out.