Some competitors on the 'make a long URL short' market had the 'URL keyword power' feature long time ago but now Tinyurl.com also followed the market demands.

Tinyurl now also offers a custom alias (optional) a.k.a. URL keyword power!

In the past the long URL at the bottom would have been shortened to some tailing cryptic expression. Now you can create a less efficient but more powerful 'speaking' URL.

tinyurl.com/tinyurl-alterantive-services

Trap: Double check your alias for typos!!! Otherwise Tinyurl will throw "The custom alias could not be made because you've already created an alias for this URL" at you. Maybe you have to clean your cookies to get around that error message but I am too lazy now to check that. Just make sure you know how to spell right :)

Related: TinyURL service is down - 4 alternative services + 44 pictures (plain text version)

Note: Plain text version because the many links sent the original article into the moderation queue at performancing.com.

• Using a redirection service like the classic tinyurl is nice but what if the service dies down or is offline for a while?
• As far as I can see tinyurl.com (Alternative b.tinyurl.com) is down at the moment. Only a 500 internal server error is coming up.

Well, you can't do much but for the ongoing link exchange via .i.e. Twitter or chat you can use some alternatives to tinyurl:

• urlsmash.com - Offers the additional alias feature. This way you can choose a name for the redirected link instead of an anonymous number with tinyurl.
• shorturl.com - Many features
• urltea.com - 'Earl Tea' is so ugly that you have to love it :) Nice for SEO: You can add descriptions to the URL (urltea.com/1?lol_at_the_photo).
• snipurl.com - I think snipurl is a classic one like tinyurl.
• Last not least: Here are 44 screenshots from tinyurl competitors with links in the descriptions on Flickr.

Hat tip to bloggersblog.com for the information about tinyurl alternatives.

Tell me in the comments which URL shortener you like and why.