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| Fwd4.Me provide a handy new URL shortening service |
| Saturday, June 06, 2009 at 15:33 by Kathleen Hill |
A new, free, URL shortening service is now available at http://fwd4.me
As you may be aware, a 'URL shortening service' is exactly that, a service which provides short aliases which redirect to long, hard to remember, unmanageable URLs.
URL shortening services have been around for many years now. They started to spring up around the same time that people started having problems using long URLs in message forum posts and in emails. Quite often, pasting a long URL in to an email will result in a broken link for the receipient as the email program the receipient uses will try to wrap the long URL on their screen to display it properly, so a URL of "http://motors.shop.ebay.com/items/Cars-Trucks_?Make=Buick&Model=Lucerne&Fuel%2520Type=!&_dmpt=US_Cars_Trucks&_fln=1&_sacat=6001&_sop=&_ssov=1&_trksid=p4506.c0.m282" might appear in the recipients InBox like this:
http://motors.shop.ebay.com/items/Ca
rs-Trucks_?Make=Buick&Model=Lucerne&F
uel%2520Type=!&_dmpt=US_Cars_Truc
ks&_fln=1&_sacat=6001&_sop=&_ssov=1&_t
rksid=p4506.c0.m282
(and more than likely, will no longer work)
With the ever-growing popularity of web sites like Twitter where character space is at premium, a short URL is an absolute must. Web sites such as Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and eBay are notorious for creating long and awkward URLs so luckily the service at http://fwd4.me is very easy to use. Simply paste your long URL in to the box on their site, click 'Shorten Your URL' and you'll instantly be given a URL which is as short as possible.
Our example URL of "http://motors.shop.ebay.com/items/Cars-Trucks_?Make=Buick&Model=Lucerne&Fuel%2520Type=!&_dmpt=US_Cars_Trucks&_fln=1&_sacat=6001&_sop=&_ssov=1&_trksid=p4506.c0.m282" was 163 characters long but by using a URL shortening service, we were able to shorten it to http://fwd4.me/tu which is just 17 characters, a total reduction of 146 characters in length.
The http://fwd4.me service also offers an "advanced mode" which opens up extra options for your short URLs. The main advanced feature is the ability to create "customised" short URLs. An would be something like the free web space your ISP provides, usually with a terrible URL so http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.d.h.walker/cmtips/index.html can be turned into a short, nicer looking, easy to remember URL of http://fwd4.me/robin
Other advanced features include the additon of a password to protect your short URL. If you only want certain people to use your short URL then simply add a password to the short URLs you create. You can also add notes and comments (public and private) to your short URLs.
An Application Programming Interface, or API as they are more commonly refered to, allows you to incorporate the services provided by http://fwd4.me in to your own web site or application. Again, the API service is provided to everyone completely free of charge.
Another feature available is the ability to preview a short URL. If you place a ? on the end of any short URL, you will see a preview of the URL. This allows you to see the long URL you would be forwarded to, along with a preview thumbnail of the web site in question and some statistics on the short URL such as how many clicks the short URL has recived, when it was created and more. You can preview our example URL at http://fwd4.me/tu?
Short in itself for "Forward For Me", the http://fwd4.me web site is still relatively new and aims to offer as many features as possible, with a lightening fast and easy to use web site. The developers of the service have a blog online at http://fwd4.info where they'll keep you posted as to what they're currently working on, plus you can contact them with 'feature suggestions' which they will consider for inclusion in future versions of their service.
Some of the older, more popular, URL shortening services are not actually providing URLs which are that short any more but as the service provided by http://fwd4.me is still relatively new, the short URLs are actually still quite short.
The http://fwd4.me service has already been adopted by some large organisations such as Hull City Council and Keep Britain Tidy.
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| I've been using fwd4me for a while now (on my Twitter account), can't fault it! |
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| Yeah we use the API too, still issuing 2 character long (short?) urls :) |
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| I like the fact that they actually use a meaningful url for their site. I mean, what the hell does bitly, sitelutions and isgd mean?? |
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