Youtube's Own URL Shortener Reviewed

Youtube's URL redirection service is one of a new breed of URL shorteners, where major companies have launched their own services specifically for parts of their service platforms. Youtube's URL redirection service came after the other two internet big guns, Facebook and Google, announced their own similar services. Today we explore the Youtube URL shortening service, along with its benefits and drawbacks.

Shortener is a little long…

One of the major complaints (and indeed, talking points) about the Youtube URL shortener so far has been its length. While bit.ly links (the default settings for Twitter URL shortening) are only 18 characters, and other URL shortening services like ity.im are able to get links down to an amazing 16 characters (just over 10% of a Tweet length), youtu.be links are around 27 characters. This is because the Youtube IDs are 11 characters long in total, and the http://youtu.be must also be counted.

Only for Youtube videos

This aspect of the Youtube URL shortener is both a benefit and a drawback. The advantage is that there is little possibility of following a link with a virus, if the only place they can point is Youtube videos. A major hack would have to occur to make the youtu.be links unsafe. However, if you have a preferred URL shortener already, why bother using the youtu.be specific service just for Youtube videos?

Difficult process to manage

Most good URL shorteners have a simple interface with instructions. The Youtube service, however, works either when you:

• Enable the Autoshare feature on your Youtube account, sign in while you are watching videos, and then Favorite a clip. The service automatically sends youtu.be links to your Twitter and Google Reader.
• Alternatively, you can replace the " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" with http://youtu.be

While the process seems simple enough when you have it sitting in front of you, try to remember which URL characters you are supposed to replace without looking back at the guide above! Try to remember it in a few days time, also. Even if you do remember the method, take an informal survey of your friends and see how many remember it. You'll see that it is less than user-friendly! With ity.im and bit.ly, you go to the site, enter your URL and get a code … much easier.