There are a number of uses for URL shorteners, some less upstanding than others, but I had begun to wonder what drew people to those services that are the most popular. Undeniably, TinyURL is the most visible URL shortener, used extensively in social media, but it seems to derive its popularity mainly from being one of the oldest services in the niche.

As is usually the case when something becomes popular, dozens of enterprising young things jumped aboard the URL shortening bandwagon and we now have a large inventory of sites with silly names from which to choose. You would think that members of the SEO community, as link-happy as we are, could pick through the offerings and choose the best sites when we need to shorten a URL. So, do we?