I’ve got a thing for domain names; I’m always thinking of words or phrases and checking out Godaddy to see if they’re available to register. I own about 16 domains right now.
The other day, I was looking for a shorter alternative that I could redirect to www.Post-Apocalyptic.info. I settled on www.PA-Ne.ws, but then decided it was too good a domain to waste by just forwarding it, and did a quick Google to see how to use it as part of a URL shortening service.
It turns out Yourls was exactly the application I was looking for. Within just a few minutes, I had my hosting set up, Yourls installed, and was pumping out short URLs. It features a bookmarklet so you can shorten URLs from any site, and it even has a WordPress plugin, which, if all goes according to plan, will automatically send a Tweet about this post, and shorten the URL at the same time.
I’ve set up a public page, so anyone is free to create short URLs of their own. If you want to be able to get access to stats and usage reports for your links, I can set you up with access to the admin page.
Tags: pa-ne.ws, post-apocalyptic, short url