URL shortening is a useful and convenient service that is here to stay. Just make sure you exercise some common sense and an ounce of cautious skepticism to avoid being exploited by a shortened URL.

Converting a long URL name into a short one. Also called "URL redirecting," there are free URL shortening services on the Web that take a long URL and convert it to a short one for publication on ...

URL-shortening services are abundant and becoming more so. They're usually designed with a priority on minimum character length, not easy reading: Is.gd, Bit.ly, Twurl.nl, Tr.im, Sn.im", Cligs ...

But be realistic about the future of URL shortening - Google and Facebook are the new drivers of the technology. They'll tweak it and shape it and deliver it to the masses.

Twitter used TinyURL as its default shortener until 2009, when it switched to bit.ly. And this year Twitter launched its very own t.co URL shortener, hosted on a Colombian domain.

Url shortening announcements are like buses. You wait for ages then three come along at once. We have already brought you news of Google’s url shortening service and the Facebook solution, now ...

However, if you use a URL shortening service to generate a URL like 'https: // . / /', the user cannot guess the web page to access. Risk # 3: Damage the brand's credibility As mentioned above ...

StumbleUpon has launched a new URL shortening service known as su.pr. The site is currently an invite-only beta, but you can follow @stumbleupon on Twitter where the company is announcing invites.

A hack in URL-shortening service Cligs redirected millions of users to a Twitter story in the Orange County Register, but security experts say the redirect was likely a mistake.

Oct. 6, 2010 11:28 a.m. PT 3 min read How the Vb.ly URL-shortening Web page looked before it was taken down because of alleged violations of Libyan law. screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET ...