Make Long URL Short
This is a paid review of D95.com, a URL shortening website.
We need short URLs for:
- Hiding your affiliate links
- Making it short so that it can fit in at some places (like forum signature) where there is a limit on number of words.
- Tracking of sites which does not provide tracking.
- Making a URL look more beautiful and remember-able instead of some huge long useless strings.
So, why do we need one more URL shortening website when we have the famous tinyurl.com?
I used the site D95 and found two features which makes this site different (or call it unique). These are the features not available at tinyurl or other similar sites.
- First, people can choose their own url, for example http://d95.com/joe (it can be anything, as long as it is still free).
- Second, D95 offers masked redirects. You can set your URL to be redirected to other site, but always have D95.com generated URL in address bar. This may be very useful among affiliate marketeers, since you hide the original site URL. Tracking cookies are still transfered to buyers computer, so that affiliate gets the sale.
One more thing I like here is that, their URL is quite short than other similar services. So when you add lets say 3 or 4 word extra to it at the end, it still small. And, in my opinion, people are more inclined to click on shorter URLs than longer ones.
Any suggestions/Improvements possible?
If they create a firefox button or toolbar to create a short URL just from the browser only, it would be a great new feature.
So, next time if you need a URL shortening service give them a try. Lets say you want to advertise an affiliate program based on dog food, you can just create d95.com/dogfood. I think this will have more chance of getting clicked.
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Jim Karter on May 7th 2008 in Website Reviews
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20 Responses to “Make Long URL Short”
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Chetan responded on 07 May 2008 at 9:34 pm #
Nice review..
Masked redirect is an option we can’t find in TinyUrl. Good to see it in D95.
Facebook Babes responded on 08 May 2008 at 12:29 am #
I hate it when people mask their URLs. It’s not like they’re fooling anyone, it just seems like a really arrogant and ridiculous thing to do.
Gregor responded on 08 May 2008 at 1:08 am #
Thanks a lot for review Jim. Also using D95 with Twitter is great, since the URL is shorter than any other similar service.
Twitter only alows you to write very short comments, so using D95 to short any url is a must.
Skywalker responded on 08 May 2008 at 1:48 am #
What’s the difference with making redirects with PHP ?
Rockstar Sid responded on 08 May 2008 at 2:51 am #
Awesome review sir..
harshads responded on 08 May 2008 at 7:20 am #
They must utilize the space by adding some more content.Template is also ok but not attractive.
Gregor responded on 08 May 2008 at 8:28 am #
harshads: what kind of content do you need? In my view the site must be as simple and possible and just perform it’s tasks for the users to 100% satisfaction.
David responded on 08 May 2008 at 10:54 am #
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the review. I can see this tool being really useful to a lot of people.
This post has been featured in FullTiltBlogging.com’s Daily Blog Summary today. Great post!
Adam responded on 08 May 2008 at 1:13 pm #
Thank you Jim for that info. I have been looking for a tool like this. Keep up the good work. Your info is very helpful.
Carol responded on 08 May 2008 at 8:15 pm #
Very nice review Jim. Honestly, it’s new for me.
Gino J responded on 10 May 2008 at 4:29 am #
Great review. Nice to know there is an option to tinyurl.com
harshads responded on 10 May 2008 at 9:30 am #
@ Gregor,
Yes, I totally agree with you but if you add something more in the site other than this useful tool then it would be great.
You can put some affiliate ads in sidebar or any other ads.
That’s it!
Cheers!
Tech blog responded on 11 May 2008 at 5:13 am #
That looks wonderful , featureful than tinyurl..
Thanks for the find.
tomjerryhacker responded on 11 May 2008 at 1:58 pm #
@JIM
guess u r paid for this too …
a 50$
Jim Karter responded on 12 May 2008 at 2:11 pm #
@tomjerryhacker, Oh yes. You can read the very first line of the post (in italics).
Googlelady responded on 13 May 2008 at 9:25 pm #
The “Unique” feature that D95 provides is really a great one. But what I don’t like for those websites are what affiliates worry about: “keywords” being saved on their servers. If D95 attract so many affiliate marketers they will have a huge “Profitable” keyword list.
Jim Karter responded on 13 May 2008 at 9:33 pm #
Good point GoogleLady.
Gregor responded on 14 May 2008 at 1:03 am #
GoogleLady, believe me, we are not spying on you in any way and we have no interest to search for keywords of any kind. We want to run a honest website that we hope will get more and more popular. I can see people using it at Tweeter already, so this is a good sign.
Zak Show responded on 19 May 2008 at 5:09 pm #
Good review but as you know people are getting more and more smart and they avoid affiliate & refferal links !
Apoorv responded on 24 May 2008 at 11:40 am #
They are good, You can also use them for spamming :p , I have seen many people at sitepoint also listing their website linking to tinyurl !