… is a small person I’ve been visualizing each time I think of Tiny Url. Use of the latter, in turn, seems key to maximizing the communication powers of Twitter. Let’s say I want to Twitter (“tweet”?) that a live set by the Norwegian rocker Ida (pronounced “EE-da”) Maria on KCRW.com has given me and my brother Jake a lot of pleasure lately (which it has, starting with her jolly single “I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked” and peaking with the majestic “Oh My God”). If I used the whole URL for that Web page — http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb090112ida_maria — that would severely crimp the rest of my message (limited, as I am, to 140 characters). But if I copy that URL and paste it into a little box at Tiny Url, the following magically emerges: http://tinyurl.com/7zen9y. Leaving me tons of room (relatively speaking) for the rest of my post.
What’s that you’re saying? You knew all this already? Tiny Url is so, like, Web 0.1? Well, there’s no reason to get snarky about it! Now, don’t make me go get Big Earl. …
You can save a few more characters with http://bit.ly. 🙂
These services are kind of neat and helpful for Twitter, but I always worry about what they do to the web. They make a lot of links dependent on a few sites, and they hide information. Not that I want to be a buzzkill or anything…
Good point, Scott. I hadn’t thought of those angles.
or you could have more fun shrinking your URLs by using http://www.bacn.me, so your URLs are all about bacn.