There are hell lots of URL shorteners available online but if you are active on Twitter or Friendfeed, you get to see only TinyURL links most of the times. This is not because TinyURL is the best URL Shortener, but it is because it was one of the first URL shortening services and people are not just aware of better alternatives to TinyURL.
Unlike TinyURL, these services which I will be discussing below are much more than a normal URL shortening service. They can be used for statistical purposes and can be used to track and analyze the links in a much better way.
Top 5 URL Shortening services which provide Statistical data
1. tr.im
Tr.im tracks the total clicks of the shortened and shared URL, the browser agents information, location of the visitors, referring websites and many more stats. It also gives the graphical representation of these stats. It has 3 different bookmarklets -
1. Sends you to their site to shorten and/or tweet the URL
2. Opens their site in a new window to shorten and/or tweet the url
3. Shortens the URL and then sends you to Twitter’s site to tweet the URL.
This is a great service for people who use twitter and like to usually share links in twitter.
2. Bit.ly
bit.ly is my next favorite URL shortening service. I actually use it more than tr.im, since my favorite twitter client, iTweet.net provides bit.ly as the inbuilt URL shortener. It is very similar to tr.im, but the stats are aggregated. The bookmarklets are simple to use.
3. cli.gs
With cli.gs, you get the “deep real-time analytics” which includes the geographical location of the visitor, the time, and other stats. Having an account in cli.gs is mandatory since the stats are private. Interesting thing is, it can HTTP 301 redirect to your URL (hence SEO friendly). It also has geo-targeting and differentiating between humans and bots which is truly unique and great.
4. BudUrl
With BudURL, you can manage all your links in one easy interface with custom notes to keep track of your placement, instant click stats and more. You can create multiple BudURLs that point to the same destination so that you can tell which source generated the best ROI, view the referrers, click charts and more.
5. SnipURL
A URL shortener with stats, batch processing of URLs and a list of interesting URLs with easy sharing options on most popular bookmarking and social sites. The stats are nothing great, but management of URLs is quite robust and easy.
Image Credits: Network Solutions
Raju PP is the founder-editor of Technically Personal, which is one of the most widely read technology blogs on the web. He holds an Engineering degree in Electronics & Communication, and has previously worked as a Technical Specialist in Banking Software domain.
I think better way to track Twitter is through Google Analytics, but for Friendfeed these are good option.
Hariharakumars last blog post..Impress Twitter Followers with Twitter DMer
You can also check my post on URL shortening services here :
http://www.devilsworkshop.org/10-services-to-shorten-long-urls/
Simrans last blog post..5 Best Free Antivirus Softwares To Protect Your PC Against Viruses
@Simran,
That’s a nice list of general URL shorteners.
I use ohurl.com, its new, so still super short URLs. simple and has stats, my personal favorite.
http://yaus.eu
Stupid simple url shortener, readable url (no numbers, no upper-lower case)
Preview (with a ‘!’ at the end of url)
Fast
Cool
It looks like two of the services you have on your list are having issues. Tr.im and Cli.gs both have threatened to shutdown. Also it is hard with the 500 + shorteners to stick with one. I am getting used to using some of the fun vanity names like Sexy URL – http://sl.ly
I like http://cru.ms personally
smal.ly is new url shortener service, includes web analytics and allows you to post your url to twitter, facebook, etc. http://smal.ly/
many of them are okay, but i hate the gui of the most, less is more…
i like ax.ag because i can see a preview of the site
i hate suprises when i get encoded links …
Try to check out with amazing URL Shortener i.e, http://www.in2s.us
Its very simple and will definitely help you to zip-zap with hits report.
http://www.2so2.com – easy to use and has batch url shortener
There is new site which short your url using more than 10 services once,he called http://www.shortesturl.net
Enjoy
As for me http://jump.fm is good solution for multiple links.
check out… mislead.in….a brilliant urls shortener with a very catchy name….
thanks for your helpful artical, i normaly use fzy.co