%% date:: [[2024-01-08]], [[2024-09-17]] parent:: %% # [[URL Shortening]] URL shortening involves setting up a shortcut to another URL, although that "shortcut" doesn't always have to be shorter. For example, if you have a long URL like [https://nicolevanderhoeven.com](https://nicolevanderhoeven.com), you can use a URL shortener to have something like [nicole.to/site](https://nicole.to/site) redirect to the longer URL. ## Reasons to use a URL shortener - To make a long URL shorter - To make a URL easier to remember (even if it's longer) - To establish consistency in URLs, such as when you may want to redirect to some URLs you don't control, and thus have different URL formats - To decouple the link that you send out to people to the actual destination of the link. That way, if the underlying destination link changes, you can just swap it out under the hood, without people using the shortened link knowing what happened. ## Services for URL shortening - [[YOURLS]] is the one that I use ([site](https://yourls.org)) - [[Polr]] is another one I've heard of but not used. ([site](https://www.polrproject.org/))