URI is an acronym for Uniform Resource Identifier, more commonly and incorrectly called a URL. A URL is a part of a URI (see the example below).
You can read more at the URI (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier) shown.
A URI shortener is your tool to convert long links (such as https://genius.com/Sam-altman-lecture-1-how-to-start-a-startup-annotated) into shorter ones (such as http://uri.to/Sam). Shortened links are memorable, therefore far more useful, and more likely to be shared. Plus, they can save valuable characters when sending links via SMS, blog comments, chats and other messages that are limited by the number of characters.
The features now available alone should convince you to use this over any other. And we don't rest - we are adding more features constantly. Here are some of the current features:
Free Short URIs (upto 5)
Custom URIs(Links)
Dynamic Links
Edit Links
Broken Link Alerts
BasicStats
UltraiStatsTM
UltraShortsTM
Priority Support
Well, first, goo.gl is no more (See https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/30/google-shutting-down-goo-gl-url-shortening-service/) and we are sorry to lose them, but hey, we’ve stepped in to take up the slack, so no worries. By the way, that link really needs shortening, don’t you think?
And yes, our URI shortener works like those other ones but much better. In addition, we are adding new features all the time. We will soon be adding, URI.Stats (just good old statistics), “Dynamic Links” (allowing you to add parameters) and a UTM builder (https://www.launchdigitalmarketing.com/what-are-utm-codes/). So, you can not only make your URIs more friendly and shareable, but you can track clicks, analyze your “clickers”, and lots more.
Better Security/Privacy: Did you know that your bit.ly and goo.gl link statistics are not private? Simply adding a + after any of their links gives you a complete view of the statistics and performance of your links. Read more here...
DON'T LET THE WORLD SPY ON YOUR STATS! Switch to uri.to today!
But one of our key USPs is that we provide “Dynamic Links”. See next….
A URI with parameters is a Dynamic Link and only URI.TO provides this feature! For example in this link: https://www.example.com/AAvQXkI?m=en-us the portion after the “?” is variable and therefore it can be changed dynamically. Thus the link could be
https://www.example.com/r/2/AAvQXkI?m=en
if you accessed it from a computer configured for English. On the other hand, someone accessing the same page from say Germany could be sent the link:https://www.example.com/r/2/AAvQXkI?m=de
which would direct the user to the German language portion of the site or a page with instructions relevant to German users. You don’t need a new link for every variation. Marketers and technologists use dynamic links to categorize traffic and to provide customized experiences especially using UTM parameters.uri.to provides Dynamic Links by shortening only the URL portion so that you don't need a separate short link for each variation of your Dynamic Links. Shortening the main link to say "ex" would give you the basic URL. And the two links above would respectively become:
uri.to/ex?en
and
uri.to/ex?de
A more complex example of a long URI using these UTM parameters might look like this:
http://www.example.com?utm_medium=display&utm_source=amazon.com&utm_campaign=Spring+Collection&utm_term=Shirts
with variations such as:
http://www.example.com?tm_medium=display?utm_source=walmart.com&utm_campaign=Spring+Collection&utm_term=Shirts
http://www.example.com?utm_medium=display?utm_source=amazon.com&utm_campaign=Spring+Collection&utm_term=Sweaters
Now these could be turned into simple short links...
http://uri.to/1234
http://uri.to/1534
http://uri.to/1236
Here, obviously “1” stands for display, “2” stands for amazon.com “5” for walmart.com and so on. However, you can also use these parameters in the uri. For instance, the examples above could respectively become
https://www.example.com/ex?1234
https://www.example.com/ex?1534
https://www.example.com/ex?1236
These last examples are the best illustration of UltraShorts. URI.to allows you to pass these parameters when redirecting and this gives you more flexibility without having to pay for additional short links.
Read more here about UTM parameters and how to use them. (But, don’t forget to reserve your favorite short link before someone else gets it!).
Just go the home page on http://uri.to by clicking Home above. In the upper input box enter the long URI that you want to shorten. We recommend copy-paste – it’s obviously quicker, but also avoids spelling mistakes. And then try various Short URIs...