bit.ly
In my twitter feed, I occasionally make use of bit.ly, a URL shortening service. Basically, you type in a long URL like “http://www.machwerx.com/writings/jumpgate-blues/” and it gives you back a shorter one like “http://bit.ly/7PpZ9S“. This is useful when you’re twittering because it only takes 20 characters. But I just recently discovered that if you add a “+” sign at the end of the URL like “http://bit.ly/7PpZ9S+“, you can get stats on how many people clicked on the link as well. Pretty neat.
(Oh, if you’re feeling super frugal with your character length, you can also use j.mp instead to save a couple extra characters.)
