While there are a lot of URL shortening sites out there, I’ve actually grown quite fond of tr.im recently. It’s a little thin on preferences right now, but there are three things that set it apart from the other services out there:
Automatic Twitter and Identi.ca Posting
Whenever you shorten a URL — thru the bookmarklet or their site — tr.im does the standard behavior and copies the output to your clipboard. On top of that tho, it also offers you the opportunity to sign in to your favorite microblogging platform and post the URL directly from tr.im itself. Removing the extra steps of opening up Twitter and pasting a link into the window makes me a very happy camper.
Zero Account Creation
Want to save your settings but don’t want to make another account? No worries! tr.im accepts both Twitter and Identi.ca logins. Saving a couple minutes of my time by not having to sign up for yet another service is rad to me in a way that words can’t quite describe.
Click Tracking
If you’re signed in to tr.im, you actually get stats on the number of times a link has been clicked. So if you’ve direct messaged or emailed a friend with a link and want to know if they’ve given it a look, there’s no need to bug them about it. Just load up the tr.im homepage and see if they have or not. Simple enough, right?
It also has the added bonus of being a super short URL that isn’t abstract like is.gd or zz.gd are. Seriously dudes, what’s up with those names? I mean, bravo for scoring a 4 character domain. That’s a feat in and of itself. Still, if what your site does isn’t fairly obvious from the URL, it kind of fails for most passive users before it gets out of the gate. tr.im actually manages to be nice and descriptive without being too heavy — and that, coupled with the reasons above, is why I like it.
So give tr.im a try and see if it integrates with your workflow. Even if you’re a bit skeptical about something as basic as a URL shortener, you might actually be pleasantly surprised at just how well it works.