That URL is so loooong!

Have you ever been sent a Web link via e-mail but you were unable to click on it because the URL was so long that it was broken in two by your e-mail client? In the database-driven Web world of today we can run into some pretty hefty URLs. Did you ever try to write down an Amazon.com URL? Ouch. Well, what if you wanted to drop your significant other a hint about what you want for Valentine's day on Amazon. You need one of my favorite little Web tools: TinyURL.

TinyURL is very simple, but extremely useful. Lets give it a try.

Say I wanted to show you something interesting I found at Amazon.com. Now, here is the actual URL that I would need to pass along to you:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R7EHZK/ref=amb_link_471
2222_5?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_
r=0RD4C1EBF9N7WRV9R3TA&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=292665201
&pf_rd_i=507846

Ouch! Now, I obviously used copy and paste in order to put that in my posting. However, it is obviously going to take up a few lines. It would also not stay on the same line in an e-mail program like Microsoft Outlook. How do I solve this problem. I simply point my browser to tinyURL.com. Here I find a simple text box where I paste my URL. It then provides me with a new tiny URL.

TinyURL was created!

The following URL:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R7EHZK/ref=amb_link_471
2222_5?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-7&pf_rd_
r=0RD4C1EBF9N7WRV9R3TA&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=292665201
&pf_rd_i=507846

has a length of 179 characters and resulted in the following TinyURL which has a length of 25 characters:

http://tinyurl.com/2aho7n

You can give the new tinyURL a spin: http://tinyurl.com/2aho7n This new tinyURL could easily be put into an e-mail or blog posting. Try a long URL of your own at tinyURL.com

I hope you enjoy using this great free tool!