This article was published on June 8, 2011

Twitter introduces automatic link shortening on Twitter.com


Twitter introduces automatic link shortening on Twitter.com

Ever since we saw the first t.co links appear some time ago, we’ve longed for automatic link shortening on Twitter.com and now we have it.

Just paste a link of any length into the Tweet box on Twitter.com. After you’ve composed your Tweet and you hit the “Tweet” button, we’ll shorten the link so that it only takes up 19 characters.

This should work right in tune with what Twitter does with any external link, where the added security of being vetted through Twitter’s system will help to keep users safe.

Interestingly, you do get 1 more character than you used to with the new link shortener on Twitter.com. All t.co-shortened links used to be 20 characters, regardless of their original length. The new ones are only 19. Rejoice in 121 remaining spaces!

Bit.ly and Goo.gl users, you have no worries. Twitter assures us in the blog that your favorite third-party shortening services will still work just fine.

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