En el acortamiento de URL, cada URL larga est asociada a una clave nica, que es la

parte que sigue a http://NombreDeDominio/. Por ejemplo, http://besturl.es/3v ti

ene una clave de 3v. No toda las redirecciones se tratan por igual; la instruccin
de redireccin enviada a un navegador puede contener en su encabezado el estado H
TTP 301 (redireccin permanente) 302 o 307 (redireccin temporal).
Hay varias tcnicas para aplicar un acortamiento de URL. Las claves pueden generar
se en base 36, suponiendo 26 letras y 10 nmeros. En este caso, cada carcter en la
secuencia ser 0, 1, 2, ..., 9, A, B, C, ..., y, z. Alternativamente, si se difere
ncian maysculas y minsculas, cada carcter puede representarse en un nmero de base 62
(26 + 26 + 10). Para formar la clave pueden usarse una funcin de tipo hash o un
nmero aleatorio generado de manera que la secuencia de claves no sea predecible.
Como alternativa, los usuarios pueden proponer su propia clave. Por ejemplo, htt
p://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TinyURL&diff=283621022&oldid=283308287 se
puede acortar a http://bit.ly/tinyurlwiki.
No todos los protocolos son capaces de hacerse ms cortos, a partir de 2011, aunqu
e los protocolos como http, https, ftp, FTPS, mailto, mms, RTMP, rtmpt, ed2k, po
p, imap, nntp, news, ldap, gopher, dict y dns estn siendo abordados por servicios
de acortadores de URL. Normalmente, los datos, y javascript: las URL no son com
patibles por razones de seguridad. Algunos servicios de acortamiento de URL apoy
an el envo de direcciones URL mailto, como una alternativa para hacer frente a mu
nging, para evitar la cosecha deseada por los rastreadores web o bots. Esto a ve
ces se puede hacer usando URL cortas, proteccin con captcha, pero esto no es comn.
Los fabricantes de acortadores de URL suelen registrar nombres de dominio de niv
el superior menos populares o esotricas, a fin de lograr una URL corta y un nombr
e pegadizo, a menudo usando hacks de dominio. Esto da como resultado el registro
de diferentes acortadores de URL con una mirada de diferentes pases, sin dejar re
lacin entre el pas en el que el dominio ha sido registrado y el propio acortador d
e URL o de los enlaces acortados. Se han usado dominios de nivel superior de pase
s como Libia (.ly), Samoa (.ws), Mongolia (.mn), Malasia (.mi) y Liechtenstein (
.li), as como muchos otros. En algunos casos, los aspectos polticos y culturales d
el pas a cargo del dominio de nivel superior pueden llegar a ser un problema para
los usuarios y propietarios, pero no suele ser el caso.
Tinyarro.ws, chicl.it, urlrace.com y qoiob.com utilizan caracteres Unicode para
lograr las URL ms cortas, desde varias direcciones URL condensadas ??son posibles
con un nmero determinado de caracteres en comparacin con aquellos que utilizan un
alfabeto latino estndar.
Un acortador de URL es un servicio que permite acortar los parmetros de una URL.
Con esto se consigue codificar una URL hacindola ms pequea para que sea ms manejable
y fcil de compartir y recordar. Algunos ejemplos de acortadores de url son Bit.l
y, BestUrl.es TinYurl. Un ejemplo de URL acortada podra ser el siguiente: tomamos
la URL "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acortador_de_Url" y la acortamos utilizan
do el servicio BestUrl.es, como resultado obtenemos la siguiente URL acortada "h
ttp://besturl.es/3v"
Un nmero creciente de sitios web estn registrando sus propios acortadores de URL p
ara hacer ms fcil compartir a travs de Twitter y Facebook. Normalmente, esto se pue
de hacer por Internet, en las pginas web de un servicio de acortamiento de URL. L
as URL cortas a menudo eluden el uso previsto de dominios de nivel superior para
indicar el pas de origen; el registro de un dominio en muchos pases requiere la p
rueba de presencia fsica dentro de ese pas, aunque una URL acortada no tiene garan
ta como tal.
URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) may be made substantially shorter in length and still direct to th
e required page. This is achieved by using a redirect on a domain name that is s

hort, which links to the web page that has a long URL. For example, the URL "htt
p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL_shortening" can be shortened to "http://tinyurl.co
m/urlwiki". This is especially convenient for messaging technologies that limit
the number of characters that may be used in a message, such as SMS, and for red
ucing the amount of typing required if the reader is copying a URL from a print
source. In November 2009, the shortened links of the URL shortening service Bitl
y were accessed 2.1 billion times.[1]
Other uses of URL shortening are to "beautify" a link, track clicks, or disguise
the underlying address. Although disguising of the underlying address may be de
sired for legitimate business or personal reasons, it is open to abuse[2] and fo
r this reason, some URL shortening service providers have found themselves on sp
am blacklists, because of the use of their redirect services by sites trying to
bypass those very same blacklists. Some websites, such as is.gd, prevent short,
redirected URLs from being posted.
There are several reasons to use URL shortening. Often regular unshortened links
may be aesthetically unpleasing. Many web developers pass descriptive attribute
s in the URL to represent data hierarchies, command structures, transaction path
s or session information. This can result in URLs that are hundreds of character
s long and that contain complex character patterns. Such URLs are difficult to m
emorize, type-out or distribute. As a result, long URLs must be copied-and-paste
d for reliability. Thus, short URLs may be more convenient for websites or hard
copy publications (e.g. a printed magazine or a book), the latter often requirin
g that very long strings be broken into multiple lines (as is the case with some
e-mail software or internet forums) or truncated.
On Twitter and some instant-messaging services, there is a limit to the number o
f characters a message can carry. Using a URL shortener can allow linking to web
pages which would otherwise violate this constraint. Some shortening services,
such as goo.gl, tinyurl.com, and bit.ly can generate URLs that are human-readabl
e, although the resulting strings are longer than those generated by a length-op
timized service. Finally, URL shortening sites provide detailed information on t
he clicks a link receives, which can be simpler than setting up an equally power
ful server-side analytics engine.
URLs encoded in two-dimensional barcodes such as QR code are often shortened by
a URL shortener in order to reduce the printed area of the code or allow printin
g at lower density in order to improve scanning reliability.
An increasing number of websites are registering their own short URLs to make sh
aring SMS easier. This can normally be done online, at the web pages of a URL sh
ortening service. Short URLs often circumvent the intended use of top-level doma
ins for indicating the country of origin; domain registration in many countries
requires proof of physical presence within that country, although a redirected U
RL has no such guarantee.
See also: URL redirection
In URL shortening, every long URL is associated with a unique key, which is the
part after http://top-level domain name/, for example http://tinyurl.com/m3q2xt
has a key of m3q2xt. Not all redirection is treated equally; the redirection ins
truction sent to a browser can contain in its header the HTTP status 301 (perman
ent redirect), 302, or 307 (temporary redirect).
There are several techniques to implement a URL shortening. Keys can be generate
d in base 36, assuming 26 letters and 10 numbers. In this case, each character i
n the sequence will be 0, 1, 2, ..., 9, a, b, c, ..., y, z. Alternatively, if up
percase and lowercase letters are differentiated, then each character can repres
ent a single digit within a number of base 62 (26 + 26 + 10). In order to form t

he key, a hash function can be made, or a random number generated so that key se
quence is not predictable. Or users may propose their own keys. For example, htt
p://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TinyURL&diff=283621022&oldid=283308287 ca
n be shortened to http://bit.ly/tinyurlwiki.
Not all protocols are capable of being shortened as of 2011, although protocols
such as http, https, ftp, ftps, mailto, mms, rtmp, rtmpt, ed2k, pop, imap, nntp,
news, ldap, gopher, dict and dns are being addressed by such services as URL Sh
ortener. Typically, data: and javascript: URLs are not supported for security re
asons. Some URL shortening services support the forwarding of mailto URLs, as an
alternative to address munging, to avoid unwanted harvest by web crawlers or bo
ts. This may sometimes be done using short, CAPTCHA-protected URLs, but this is
not common.[3]
Makers of URL shorteners usually register domain names with less popular or esot
eric Top-level domains in order to achieve a short URL and a catchy name, often
using domain hacks. This results in registration of different URL shorteners wit
h a myriad of different countries, leaving no relation between the country where
the domain has been registered and the URL shortener itself or the shortened li
nks. Top-level domains of countries such as Libya (.ly), Samoa (.ws), Mongolia (
.mn), Malaysia (.my) and Liechtenstein (.li) have been used as well as many othe
rs. In some cases, the political or cultural aspects of the country in charge of
the top-level domain may become an issue for users and owners,[4] but this is n
ot usually the case.
Tinyarro.ws, urlrace.com, and qoiob.com use Unicode characters to achieve the sh
ortest URLs possible, since more condensed URLs are possible with a given number
of characters compared to those using a standard Latin alphabet.[citation neede
d]
Many providers of shortened URLs claim that they will "never expire" (there is a
lways the implied small print: so long as we do not decide to discontinue this s
ervice there is no contract to be breached by a free service, regardless of "promi
ses" and remain in business).
A permanent URL is not necessarily a good thing. There are security implications
, and obsolete short URLs remain in existence and may be circulated long after t
hey cease to point to a relevant or even extant destination. Sometimes a short U
RL is useful simply to give someone over a telephone conversation for a one-off
access or file download, and no longer needed within a couple of minutes.
Some URL shorteners offer a time-limited service, which will expire after a spec
ified period. Services available include an ordinary, easy-to-say word as the UR
L with a lifetime from 5 minutes up to 24 hours, creation of a URL which will ex
pire on a specified date or after a specified period, creation of a very-short-l
ived URL of only 5 characters for typing into a smartphone, restriction by the c
reator of the total number of uses of the URL, and password protection. A Micros
oft Security Brief recommends the creation of short-lived URLs, but for reasons
explicitly of security rather than convenience.[6]
An early reference is US Patent 6957224, which describes
...a system, method and computer program product for providing links to remo
tely located information in a network of remotely connected computers. A uniform
resource locator (URL) is registered with a server. A shorthand link is associa
ted with the registered URL. The associated shorthand link and URL are logged in
a registry database. When a request is received for a shorthand link, the regis
try database is searched for an associated URL. If the shorthand link is found t
o be associated with a URL, the URL is fetched, otherwise an error message is re
turned.[7]

The patent was filed in September 2000; while the patent was issued in 2005, pat
ent applications are made public within 18 months of filing.
Another reference to URL shortening was in 2001.[8] The first notable URL shorte
ning service, TinyURL, was launched in 2002. Its popularity influenced the creat
ion of at least 100 similar websites,[9] although most are simply domain alterna
tives. Initially Twitter automatically translated long URLs using TinyURL, altho
ugh it began using bit.ly in 2009.[10]
On 14 August 2009 WordPress announced the wp.me URL shortener for use when refer
ring to any WordPress.com blog post.[11] In November 2009, shortened links on bi
t.ly were accessed 2.1 billion times.[12] Around that time, bit.ly and TinyURL w
ere the most widely used URL-shortening services.[12]
One service, tr.im, stopped generating short URLs in 2009, blaming a lack of rev
enue-generating mechanisms to cover costs and Twitter's default use of the bit.l
y shortener, and questioning whether other shortening services could be profitab
le from URL shortening in the longer term.[13] It resumed for a time,[14] then c
losed.
The shortest possible long-term URLs were generated by NanoURL from December 200
9 until about 2011, associated with the top-level .to (Tonga) domain, in the for
m http://to./xxxx, where xxxx represents a sequence of random numbers and letter
s.[15]
On 14 December 2009 Google announced a service called Google URL Shortener at go
o.gl, which originally was only available for use through Google products (such
as Google Toolbar and FeedBurner)[16] and extensions for Google Chrome.[17] On 2
1 December 2009, Google introduced a YouTube URL Shortener, youtu.be.[18] From S
eptember 2010 Google URL Shortener became available via a direct interface. The
goo.gl service provides analytics details and a QR code generator.
The main advantage of a short link is that it is, in fact, short, and can be eas
ily communicated and entered without error. To a very limited extent it may obsc
ure the destination of the URL, though easily discoverable; this may be advantag
eous, disadvantageous, or irrelevant. A short link which expires, or can be term
inated, has some security advantages.
Shortcomings
Unbalanced scales.svg
This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the artic
le's neutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's conten
ts into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (October 2011)
Abuse
URL shortening may be utilized by spammers or for illicit internet activities. A
s a result, many have been removed from online registries or shut down by web ho
sts or internet service providers.
According to Tonic Corporation, the registry for .to domains, it is "very seriou
s about keeping domains spam free" and may remove URL shortening services from t
heir registry if the service is abused.[19]
In addition, "u.nu" made the following announcement upon closing operations:
The last straw came on September 3, 2010, when the server was disconnected w
ithout notice by our hosting provider in response to reports of a number of link
s to child pornography sites. The disconnection of the server caused us serious
problems, and to be honest, the level and nature of the abuse has become quite d
emoralizing. Given the choice between spending time and money to find a differen
t home, or just giving up, the latter won out.[20]

Google's url-shortener discussion group has frequently included messages from fr

ustrated users reporting that specific shortened URLs have been disabled after t
hey were reported as spam.[21]
A study in May 2012 showed that 61% of URL shorteners had shut down (614 of 1002
).[22] The most common cause cited was abuse by spammers.
Linkrot
The convenience offered by URL shortening also introduces potential problems, wh
ich have led to criticism of the use of these services. Short URLs, for example,
will be subject to linkrot if the shortening service stops working; all URLs re
lated to the service will become broken. It is a legitimate concern that many ex
isting URL shortening services may not have a sustainable business model in the
long term. This worry was highlighted by a statement from tr.im in August 2009 (
see above).[12] In late 2009, the Internet Archive started the "301 Works" proje
cts,[23] together with twenty collaborating companies (initially), whose short U
RLs will be preserved by the project.[12] The URL shortening service ur1.ca prov
ides its entire database as a file download, so if its website stops working, ot
her websites may be able to provide ways to correct broken links to URLs shorten
ed with its service. A circumvention could be that a website provided its own sh
ortlinks instead of relying on a shortening service
but this is not common.
Transnational law
Shortened internet links typically use foreign country domain names, and are the
refore under the jurisdiction of that nation. Libya, for instance, exercised its
control over the .ly domain in October 2010 to shut down vb.ly for violating Li
byan pornography laws. Failure to predict such problems with URL shorteners and
investment in URL shortening companies may reflect a lack of due diligence.[24]
Blocking
Some websites prevent short, redirected URLs from being posted.
In 2009, the Twitter network replaced TinyURL with Bit.ly as its default shorten
er of links longer than twenty-six characters.[10] In April 2009, TinyURL was re
ported to be blocked in Saudi Arabia.[25] Yahoo! Answers blocks postings that co
ntain TinyURLs,[citation needed] and Wikipedia does not accept links by any URL
shortening services in its articles.[26]
Advertising
Sites such as Adf.ly use a number of interstitial advertising techniques to gene
rate revenue. This may deter readers.
Privacy and security
Users may be exposed to privacy issues through a URL shortening service's abilit
y to track a user's behavior across many domains.
A short URL obscures the target address and can be used to redirect to an unexpe
cted site. Examples of this are rickrolling, redirecting to shock sites, or to a
ffiliate websites. The short URL can allow blacklisted URLs to be accessed, bypa
ssing blocks; this facilitates redirection of a user to blacklisted scam pages o
r pages containing malware or XSS attacks. TinyURL tries to disable spam-related
links from redirecting.[27] ZoneAlarm, however, has warned its users: "TinyURL
may be unsafe. This website has been known to distribute spyware." TinyURL count
ered this problem by offering an option to view a link's destination before usin
g a shortened URL. This ability is installed on the browser via the TinyURL webs
ite and requires the use of cookies.[28] A destination preview may also be obtai
ned by prefixing the word "preview" to the TinyURL URL; for example, the destina
tion of http://tinyurl.com/8kmfp is revealed by entering http://preview.tinyurl.
com/8kmfp. Other URL shortening services provide a similar destination display.[

29] Security professionals suggest that users check a short URL's destination be
fore accessing it, following an instance where shortening service cli.gs was com
promised, exposing millions of users to security uncertainties.[30] There are se
veral web applications that can display the destination of a shortened URL.
Some URL shortening services filter their links through bad-site screening servi
ces such as Google Safe Browsing. Many sites that accept user-submitted content
block links, however, to certain domains in order to cut down on spam and for th
is reason, known URL redirection services are often themselves added to spam bla
cklists.
Additional layer of complexity
Short URLs, although making it easier to access what might otherwise be a very l
ong URL or user-space on an ISP server, add an additional layer of complexity to
the process of retrieving web pages. Every access requires more requests (at le
ast one more DNS lookup, though it may be cached, and one more HTTP/HTTPS reques
t), thereby increasing latency, the time taken to access the page, and also the
risk of failure, since the shortening service may become unavailable. Another op
erational limitation of URL shortening services is that browsers do not resend P
OST bodies when a redirect is encountered. This can be overcome by making the se
rvice a reverse proxy, or by elaborate schemes involving cookies and buffered PO
ST bodies, but such techniques present security and scaling challenges, and are
therefore not used on extranets or Internet-scale services.[original research?]
URL shortening services
bit.ly (Bitly)
goo.gl (Google)
ow.ly (Hootsuite)
t.co (Twitter)
TinyURL (Gilby)
Tr.im (Gravity4)
See also
Country code top-level domain
Domain name system
Generic top-level domain
Link rot
List of Internet top-level domains
Semantic URL
http://example.com/index.asp?mod=profiles&id=193 becomes http:/
/example.com/user/john-doe
Vanity domain
Vanity URL
References
Goo.gl Challenges Bit.ly as King of the Short
New York Times, 14 December 2009
Curtis, Sophie (8 August 2014). "Twitter's t.co URL shortener used to spread spa
m". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
"Spammers Storm URL Shortening Services". CertMag. 17 August 2009.
http://hootsuite.com. "#HootSuite Offers Choice of URL Shorteners ~ From Libya t
o Liechtenstein HootSuite Social Media Management". Blog.hootsuite.com. Retrieve
d 20 April 2013.
Chapman, Stephen (28 August 2012). "How to spy on campaigns of competitors who u
se URL shorteners". ZDNet. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
Sullivan, Bryan (March 2009). "Protect Your Site With URL Rewriting - A Stateles
s Approach: Automatically Expiring URLs". Security Briefs. Microsoft MSDN Magazi
ne. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
US patent 6957224, Nimrod Megiddo and Kevin S. McCurley; assigned to IBM corp.,
"Efficient retrieval of uniform resource locators", issued 2005-10-18

"Comment thread 8916". Metafilter. 10 June 2001; Announcement of URL shortening

service available at makeashorterlink.com
"URL Shortening Services" shortenurl
Supported URL shortening services
Wortham, Jenna (7 May 2009) "Bit.ly Eclipses TinyURL on Twitter" Bits (blog at T
he New York Times). Retrieved 1 January 2011.
"WP.me Shorten Your Links" WordPress. 14 August 2009.
Ahmed, Murad (7 December 2009). "New Project in Scramble To Save Vanishing Inter
net Links
The Internet Archive Is Fighting To Preserve Shortened Web Links Creat
ed by Free Online Services That May Be Running Out of Money". The Times. Retriev
ed 1 January 2011.
tr.im R.I.P. blog.tr.im
tr.im Resurrected. blog.tr.im
Michlick, Frank. ".TO ccTLD Becomes Worlds Shortest URL Shortener". Domainnamene
ws.com. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
Muthusrinivasan, Muthu (14 December 2009). "Making URLs Shorter for Google Toolb
ar and FeedBurner". Googleblog.blogspot.com. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
"goo.gl "URL Shortener Google Chrome Extension Gallery"". Chrome.google.com. Ret
rieved 20 April 2013.
"Official YouTube Blog: Make Way for youtu.be Links". Official YouTube Blog.
"Tonic Corporation Frequently asked questions". Tonic.to. Retrieved 20 April 201
3.
http://u.nu/unu-discontinued "u.nu :: discontinued."
"Google Discussiegroepen". Groups.google.com. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
"Ultimate list of URL shorteners". Yi.tl. 23 May 2012. Archived from the origina
l on 2013-04-18. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
"301Works.org : Free Software : Download & Streaming : Internet Archive". archiv
e.org.
Staff writer (14 October 2010). "Law, Politics and Internet Addresses
Tough.ly/T
reated Shortened Web Links Are Convenient, But They Come at a Price". The Econom
ist. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
"TinyURL Blocked in Saudi Arabia". Committee to Protect Bloggers. 16 April 2009.
"Spam blacklist". meta.wikimedia.org. Meta, discussion about Wikimedia projects.
6 November 2011.
Krebs, Brian (13 June 2006). "Spam Spotted Using TinyURL". Security Fixes (blog
at The Washington Post). Retrieved 1 January 2011.
"Preview a TinyURL". Tinyurl.com. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
"the JoshMeister on Security: How to Preview Shortened URLs (TinyURL, bit.ly, is
.gd, and more)". Security.thejoshmeister.com. 11 April 2009. Retrieved 20 April
2013.
"Updated: Cligs Got Hacked
16 June 2009).

Restoration from Backup Started" Blog at Cli.gs (

External links
URL redirection and shortening at DMOZ
Comparison of URL Shortening Services, SearchEngineLand. April 2009.
Nesbitt, Scott (7 February 2010). "Shorter Is Sweeter: A Look at URL Shorten
ers". Geeks.com.
Categories:
Uniform Resource LocatorInternet terminologyURL-shortening services