What's a TinyURL anyway?

Internet addresses often look like "tinyurl.com/abdef". TinyURL.com is a web site that changes long web addresses (URLs) into short ones. TinyURL.com looks like this

You can type or paste a URL into the first box. You may enter a "vanity URL" in the lower box. The vanity URL is one that is unlikely to represent an existing address. Here's an example using the address of my November newsletter. The actual address is:

http://app.e2ma.net/app2/campaigns/archived/1402118/04524839befdceac7d3801bfcf3f7292/

Since the vanity address (Braley012) has not been used, TinyURL provided the following short vanity address

You can now use www.tinyurl/Braley012 in place of the longer original version. NOTE: The first part of a web address - up to the first slash following the .com, .edu, etc. is NOT case sensitive. Anything following that slash may be case sensitive.

TinyURL is not the only game in town. You might also check out

goo.gl, is.gd, kxk.me, tiny.cc. bit.ly or tr.im

The shortened URL is an intermediary web page set up by the shortening service. When you click to go there, you are immediately redirected to the desired page (with the original longer address.) For more information go to http://bit.ly/9g6sth