Urlic

The URLic website has a text box to enter a long URL. For each URL entered, the server adds a new alias in its database and returns a short URL such as http://URLic.com/1a. The shorter URL is forwarded to the longer one.An optional text box allows the user to enter a custom suffix to create a personolized short URL, such as http://URLic.com/john.

Short URL aliases are seen as useful because they're easier to write down, remember or pass around. They also fit where space is limited such as IRC channel topics or email signatures. Also some email clients impose a maximum length at which they automatically break lines requiring the user to paste together a long URL rather than just clicking on it. A short URL alias is much less likely to become broken.

After Creating a short URL, the user can log into http://stats.URLic.com and see how many times his short URL was used, and when exactly was it last used.

Technology

URLic.com is written in PHP, with AJAX technology. It makes it a Web 2.0 website. The meaning is that the main page doesn't reload and is not redirected to another page when the user presses the "Make it Short" Button. Everything happens on the same page.

Criticism

Some people say that URLic can be used to hide the real URL, and make people go to websites that they wouldn't normally go to. The URL becomes less descriptive of the destination webpage. Although, this can be partially overcome by using the custom URL Suffix option.

Future

In the near future, the creators plan to make a password protected statistics page for each short URL.There are more advanced URL services that are in mind.

See also

* URL redirection
* HTTP URL aliasing
* Tinyurl - Similar service.