The war on long URLs started a long time ago and shows no sign of ending. They are hard to remember, bad for SEO and impractical to embed. What’s more, the rise of social media, online information and mobile use seems to be forcing many of them to go to the hairdresser for a trim.
Some figures that back up these claims:
MORE PEOPLE BROWSING ON MOBILE
In Spain, 66% of mobile users browse the internet on smartphones. In other words, 7 out of 10 internet users browse on their phones. In fact, Spain leads Europe in smartphone use, ahead of Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy. According to a study by the consulting firm Comscore, almost 4 million people who browse the internet on their phones also do so on a tablet.
GROWTH OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Eight out of ten users are on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. On Twitter alone, there are more than five million active Spanish accounts.
Numbers aside, it is clear that more and more information is shared online, through social media and on mobile. Part of this information is exchanged as URLs, and if they are too long they are impractical.
Why do we need to shorten URLs? To send them via Twitter (messages have a character limit), on mobile (to avoid long, annoying addresses), by email, or simply to include them in a digital résumé (if we don’t want to use hyperlinks).
There are several free apps for shortening URLs. Here are two:
Goo.gl: this is Google URL Shortener. Besides trimming the URL, it lets you track the clicks the shortened address receives, whether on social media, in emails or elsewhere online. To use the service, all you need is a Google email account.
Cli.gs: lets you customize shortened URLs and also offers real-time statistics on the clicks the shortened address receives.
Both apps let you not only shorten addresses but also track them, a useful feature especially if you want to see the impact that address has online.
