TinyURL is a handy service for creating shortcut links from long web addresses (Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs). For example, you’d like to email a very lengthy URL, such as MapQuest directions to your home. If you paste the link in an email, it may look OK to you, but for the person receiving the email, the hyperlink could be broken into multiple lines. This could be inconvenient or confusing to the person you’re emailing.

Instead, you could use TinyURL to create a “shortcut” to the original link. Because this URL is short, the person you’re emailing should be able to click on the TinyURL link with no problem.

How To Be Kind When Sending Shortcuts…

When you create a TinyURL shortcut, you could send the link beginning with “http://tinyurl.com/…”, but it’s better to send a link like this: http://preview.tinyurl.com/5qn6mk

When this link is clicked,the browser first goes to a page like this:
TinyURLPreview
…and Protect Yourself By Previewing Before You Click
If you receive an email with one of these shortcuts, or browse to a page containing one, you should make sure you know where the link will take you before you click on it.

There are at least 2 ways to determine beforehand where the TinyURL link would redirect you.

TinyURL’s Browser Preview Feature

You could enable the preview feature. Now when you click on a TinyURL.com link, instead of browsing directly to the page linked to the shortcut, you’ll see a screen like the one above.

Caution: If you regularly delete browser cookies (using CCleaner, for instance), this will disable the Preview feature. (You can prevent this by specifying that CCleaner not delete the TinyURL.com cookie.)

Interceptor

FoxPro users have another option. Interceptor 2.1, a script which uses the Greasemonkey add-on (previously mentioned), which changes the text on the web page from “tinyurl.com/…” to the “redirect” site name. Placing the cursor over the link displays a tooltip which reveals exactly where the TinyURL shortcut points to:

TinyURLTooltip

Takeaway: TinyURL is useful for shrinking those long URLs into manageable, email-able shortcuts. It’s important not to click blindly on one of these links. These tips will help protect you (and your friends) to use TinyURL’s shortcuts wisely. Check out TinyURL today!