There is a kind of link shortening mania out there.

There was a time when TinyURL was the only one. Now YouTube, Google, and Facebook are getting into this business.

It is understable. With so many web pages being shared across social networks, e-mail and micro-blogs, shortened links have become an esential need when managing monster-sized URLs.

I have collected some of them:

• YouTube has chosen http://youtu.be (a Belgium top-level domain). They announced it in their blog. To use youtu.be manually just replace a big portion of the youtube.com url. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdeioVndUhs would be http://youtu.be/FdeioVndUhs
   
• Bit.ly, which is the official link shortening service for Twitter, is the most extended. Now they have launched a 'pro' version for websites, bloggers and news organizations. The New York Times, for example, would appear as nyti.ms
   
• Google has launched Goo.gl for its Google Toolbar and Feedburner users. So it is not available for broader consumer use.
   
• Facebook has created fb.me as shortening service. So just type fb.me and you will be automatically redirect to Facebook.com