3.ly offers the shortest URLs yet

When you’ve only got 140 characters to work with, having a good URL shortening service is essential on Twitter. The default Bit.ly service is actually pretty long compared to some of the alternatives. I rounded up some of the best last year and concluded that is.gd was the best if brevity was important to you.

Now a new service has launched that takes things probably as short as they can possibly get. 3.ly URLs are just 14 characters long compared to is.gd’s 17. It’s all a bit bare-bones at the moment, it has URL customisation as an option but there’s no click-tracking, a feature offered by some of its rivals. The website promises advanced features coming soon, though.

Can URLs get even shorter? I’m not sure they can but given the popularity of Twitter I’m sure someone’s working on it.