URL Shorteners from Google, Facebook, help Wave, and prove why it's needed

Interesting times; the article continues with a critical assessment of Twitter’s communication capabilities

Google today announced a new URL shortener, and Facebook appears to be testing one of its own.

That's right, two more in a crowded field of URL shorteners, the weirdest little function in the short and colorful history of the internet.

For those not familiar, URL shorteners are needed in those cases where a long Uniform Resource Locator is too long. The URL is the stuff inside the address bar, and a shortening service will make a unique, but short, URL and when it is entered that service will redirect the user to the actual page desired, the one with the long URL.

URL Shorteners from Google, Facebook, help Wave, and prove why it's needed