3.ly - Shorten Links To Just Three Characters

URL shortening is certainly a fertile field. We can chalk it down to the popularity of social services as a whole, and the fact that services like Twitter snowball by the hour just give them added presence on the web.

This one is a young contender, and (as it is necessary for a new one to have a chance nowadays) it brings something original into the mix: the actual length of the shortened link. The word “short” has been taken literally, and any link shortened using this new service amounts to nothing more than three characters.

Such a development is not an insignificant one. The most obvious advantage it redounds to is that you can effectively memorize the link. Granted, you can always memorize a link created using any of the already-established shorteners available, but there is a significant difference between memorizing a URL that has only three characters and one that has five or six.

Future updates will include the option for users to create accounts and also to track traffic (a real-time hit counter is already provided). Oh, and the teams brags about having the shortest support e-mail address ever. I have to concede they are right – it is s@3.ly.

“The 3 letter URL shortener… the shortest in the World!”

URLs that short are appealing if only because they can be memorized effortlessly if necessary.

How customizable is the conversion process on the whole?