A new URL shortening service LinksPreadeR (spelled like that because the URL is l.pr) has just launched in beta with an interesting twist on the shortening craze. It allows you to tack comments onto the end of the short URL, to send messages via the hyperlink. That’s kind of cool, but it also obviously makes the short URL a lot longer.
The idea is that with the messages in the URL, you won’t need to have a separate comment in your tweet or Facebook message. The problem with that is that people the people who like to retweet comments with comments of their own will have much less space to do so.
Here’s an example of what the shortened URL with a message will look like: http://l.pr/a43v/hey,_it’s_mah_blog and here’s a slightly more ridiculous one: http://l.pr/a43w/hey,_look_it’s_my_Twitter_profile._go_take_a_look._if_you_dare.
Yeah, not sure how useful that is.
But, you can use it as a regular shortening service too. Below each message-encoded URL is an actual short URL you can use too. For example, the latter one above can also be: http://l.pr/a43w. Yes, much shorter, and nice thanks to the three letter domain.
Like most other URL shortening services. LinksPreadR also has a bookmarklet for easier use.
Update: And I just realized something, for URLs with really long messages, Twitter will re-shorten it, using bit.ly. Yeah, that totally defeats the point. For shorter messages it still works though.