URL shortening services such as TinyURL and bit.ly and come in handy especially when when want to share links with super long URLs on Twitter which has a limitation of only 140 characters per tweet. Although shortened URLs are really useful and of course indeed a brilliant creation, however, there are some limitations. For example, since these services create shortened URLs using a random alphabet or number, hence, it’s impossible to know where it links to or even unaware that you’ve actually been there before.
This is when Longr.us, a free URL enlarging service can help us to eliminate these serious and irritating issues. Having a similar domain name and logo as US-based toy store chain Toys “R” US, this useful tool converts a shortened URL to another long URL that contains the page’s domain name and title. To start, simply copy a URL from the source and paste it into the form. Then, it’ll expands it. Also, http://longr.us/books.slashdot.org/collective-intelligence-in-action is much more useful to your friends than http://books.slashdot.org/books/09/02/18/1423251.shtml if you want to share that page.
Of course, it’s impossible to share these long URLs on micro-blogging platform Twitter and after inserting in the link, I bet you would have any space left for your message. Longr.us runs on Google App Engine and uses jQuery. There are actually quite a number of alternatives to Longr.us and one of them is the popular Firefox extension Long URL Please.