We are all tired of lengthy and complicated URLs and we have all our favorite web application to shorten them for us. Following is a brief review of top 7 URL shortneres, in no specific order.

#1. TinyURL

TinyURL is one of the most popular and probably one of the first ones. They claim over 1.5 Billion hits/month and you often see TinyURLs on famous blogs like TechCrunch e.t.c. I think the key is in the simplicity of their design and functionality. All you do is copy-paste your long URL and click on submit to get a shorter easier-to-share link. However, something that many people don’t know is that you can add a TinyURL bookmarklet to your browser so you don’t have to go to the website all the time. Just click on the bookmarklet after you have a link on your clipboard and your link would be copied to TinyURL automatically.

#2 Doiop

Doiop is very similar to TinyURL in terms of functionality. The only added features are a better interface and the ability to share your shorten URL on many of the social networking sites directly from Doiop. Doiop and TinyURL also allow you to customize your shorten URL by chosing a keyword.

#3 dwarfURL

dwarfURL offers a couple of very sweet features that others don’t It allows you to password-protect your link and also allows you to track the traffic of your shortened URL. So now you can see how many people have actually visited the URL.

They also allow a very neat one-slick firefox add-on that allows you to shorten a URL in your address bar by just one-click.

#4 TraceURL

TraceURL goes one step beyond. It not only allows you to shorten your URL and see how many people have visited it; it also allows you to see the point of origin of all the visits. TraceURL is more like a service where you manage your URLs. Hence, it asks you to create an account and log-in before using any of the features.

#5 QurlyQ

QurlQ is another one where simplicity takes precedence over other things. A very simple and easy to use to use service with a clean interface. Moreover, it automatically redirects you to the  link after it has shortened the link.

#6 Snipurl

What if you have more than one URLs to shorten and share. SnipURL offers an added feature of snipping multiple URLs. However, they require you to signup and login before using that feature. A very clean and simple interface though with all the good stuff like bookmarklet, ability to share across social networks, copy directly to your clipboard.

#7 Linkasa

Linkasa is another one with a very simple interface. Whats different with Linkasa? it actually shows you different statistics of the compression like the characters in the original URL, characters in the shorten URL and how much compression Linkasa actually did. Just like some of others, it also gives you an option of customizing your shortened URL by specifying keywords and shows you a thumbnail preview of the link.