With TinyURL, when you submit a gigantic URL, it generates a random six-character code and links it to that URL in a table. Then, when users click that TinyURL link or enter it into a browser, they go to the TinyURL site, which looks up the longer URL and redirects them to the original longer URL.

TinyURL is one of several link-shrinking applications available. An easy-to-use bookmarklet is available so you don’t have to keep visiting TinyURL every time you want to shrink a link. ♦♦♦♦