Need to create a URL that disappears into thin air? VapURL creates a shortened URL with a shelf life.

Shortened URLs aren't going anywhere soon. Creating and sharing them is easy, but previewing where they're leading you usually requires add-ons or software. Enter webapp Untiny with quick copy-paste or URL tweak solutions, and plenty of optional helper tools.

Tini.us goes beyond the basics of URL shrinking with additional features like password protection and aggregated comments about the URL you just visited.

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension Long URL Please changes almost all shortened links in a page back to the real URL—so you can easily see where a link is really taking you.

Firefox: FoxyURL is both a URL shortening website and a Firefox extension that is fantastically simple to use. If URL shortening was any easier, it would have to be telepathic

Firefox with Greasemonkey: TinyURLs and kin are great for packing links into small spaces, but not so great at revealing where the link will take you. Remove the mystery with TinyURL Decoder.

We've talked a lot about making URLs shorter, from Hive Five topics to fancy Unicode tricks. What about the times you want to make your URL bigger?

Someone must have heard your complaints about TinyURLs not being tiny enough. Through the magic of Unicode, Tinywarro.ws makes your URLs even more minuscule. How tiny? Tinyarro.ws turned Lifehacker AU's URL into http://➡.ws/ᘬⓨ, TinyURL by comparison turned our URL into —12 characters longer. What is this URL shrinking witchcraft? Tinyarro.ws replaces the alpha-numeric string used by other URL shrinking services with a single Unicode character. Unicode was developed as a way of representing symbols from world writing systems in a consistent way across computing platforms. Thanks to systems not based on the Latin alphabet, there are around 100,000 unique characters and symbols. The downside of that is you may end up with a symbol that means "horny turtle", or other cryptographs of various hilarities or embarassments. When you click on a URL created with the service, you are directed to a splash page that shows the real URL you're being forwarded to, which is a nice touch for those committed to work-safe browsing. Tinyarro.ws is free to use, doesn't require a sign-up. Tinnyarro.ws

SHUURL is a URL-shrinking service that adds some security styling to your links, providing everyone who clicks a security rating and thumbnail preview of the page you're linking to. Every URL you shorten with SHUURL is compared to the database at the Web of Trust, a crowd-sourced website rating service. Anyone who follows the URL will stop first at the SHUURL website and see a thumbnail of the site you've linked to alongside its WoT rating. That preview is a nice protection layer, but some images may be too small to tell if its safe for work or not—something you can solve with the more standard TinyURL service by turning on previews. SHUURL is a free service, no sign-up required.

SHUURL

TinyChat is a no-frills service for creating disposable chatrooms. Each chatroom gets a unique TinyURL for easy sharing, and nobody involved needs special software to join in.

Webapp cli.gs transforms your long URLs into short URLs with detailed click-through statistics. Unlike previously mentioned dwarfURL, cli.gs gives analytics junkies a rush with interactive AJAX graphs and detailed referrer data in addition to search engine references to the particular URL (or "clig"). cli.gs doesn't stop there: any time someone mentions your clig in social media, be it a blogger, on Twitter, or via delicious, the source is also calculated and treated as coming from "social media." Call it TinyURL on steroids. Clig are also supported by LongURL so you can get the details of the destination URL before you actually click. cli.gs

Web site (and Firefox extension) LongURL expands URLs that have been shortened by services like TinyURL, Ping.fm, is.gd, and tons more, so you know where the link is pointing before you follow it. The site itself is a decent tool to begin with, but the Firefox extension is what makes LongURL really useful. Once installed, the LongURL extension will automatically expand a shortened URL in the tooltip when you hover over the link with your mouse (it doesn't waste bandwidth until you hover over a compacted link). Since it uses a web service, the supported services are automatically updated when new services come and go. LongURL also comes in Greasemonkey script and Ubiquity form, so be sure to check the tools page for the add-on you prefer. While you're at it, check out previously mentioned Embiggen and Tin Foil Hat.

LongURL

Venerable URL shortening service TinyURL has caught up with its rivals by adding a feature allowing you to define your own short names (or as it calls them, custom aliases), rather than just accepting the supplied random stream of characters. Most of the obvious choices have already been grabbed, but it's worth a try if you have a particular abbreviation in mind and a long site address to deal with. Some points to bear in mind: you can't associate a given URL with more than one abbreviation, and for short site names the abbreviated version might not end up much shorter.

If you're regularly sent TinyURLs but have been burned one too many times by clicking through to an embarrassing link at the wrong time, head to TinyURL's preview page and enable previews. This old but useful feature will set a cookie in your browser, and henceforth all TinyURLs you click on with direct you to a landing page that will display the full link so you can make a more educated decision as to whether or not you should wait to visit the link. For similar solutions that change or preview TinyURL links on-the-fly, check out previously mentioned Embiggen bookmarklet or Tin Foil Hat. TinyURL Preview

Web site NSFW.in is a URL-shrinking web application à la TinyURL with a twist, allowing users to share Not Safe For Work (NSFW) links without fear of compromising your poor, unsuspecting friend. When you follow a NSFW.in link (like this one, which actually is safe), you've got to confirm that you are indeed ready to view a web page that's potentially not safe for a work environment. Confirm, and you're through, reveling in the work-unfriendly filth of the dirty, dirty link. Now disperse, and share NSFW links across the internet with impunity!

Link-shrinking services like TinyURL are great for sending long links, but sometimes you might want to share a list of sites with a contact over Twitter, IM, or even mobile phone text. LinkBunch, a free link consolidation service, enables just that kind of URL sharing. Head to LinkBunch, type or paste in your addresses one per line, and you'll get a LinkBunch URL that points to a fast-loading page with all your links on it, as well as a meta-link that opens them all. Better still, Firefox users can install a LinkBunch extension that lets you automatically submit all your open tabs for a LinkBunch URL. The site is free to use and requires no sign-up. LinkBunch