Bitly
Bitly is a cool pice of software that allows you to cloak the web address information. It all done on line so you can do this from any computer that has access on the internet. There is even a app for the iPhone that allows you to do this on the phone. Another thing is Bitly keeps stats on the cloaked address, like how many visits to the site, so you know how the page is being visited.
Here is the background from Wikipedia :
There are several reasons to use URL shortening. The free hosting space provided by Internet Service Providers for its customers may generate an aesthetically unpleasing address. Many web developers pass descriptive attributes in the URL to represent data hierarchies, command structures, transaction paths or session information. This can result in URLs that are hundreds of character long and that contain complex character patterns. Such URLs are difficult to memorize and manually reproduce. As a result, long URLs must be copied-and-pasted for reliability. Thus, short URLs may be more convenient for websites or hard copy publications (e.g. a printed magazine or a book), the latter often requiring that very long strings be broken into multiple lines (as is the case with some e-mail software or internet forums) or truncated.
On Twitter and some instant-messaging services, there is a limit to the number of characters a message can carry. Using a URL shortener can allow linking to web pages which would otherwise violate this constraint. Some shortening services, such astinyurl.com and bit.ly, can generate URLs that are human-readable, although the resulting strings are longer than those generated by a length-optimized service. Finally, URL shortening sites provide detailed information on the clicks a link receives, which can be simpler than setting up an equally powerful server-side analytics engine.
URLs encoded in two-dimensional barcodes such as QR code are often shortened by a URL shortener in order to reduce the printed area of the code or allow printing at lower density in order to improve scanning reliability.
It's very easy to use and I highly recommend it.
Take a look below!
Here is the background from Wikipedia :
There are several reasons to use URL shortening. The free hosting space provided by Internet Service Providers for its customers may generate an aesthetically unpleasing address. Many web developers pass descriptive attributes in the URL to represent data hierarchies, command structures, transaction paths or session information. This can result in URLs that are hundreds of character long and that contain complex character patterns. Such URLs are difficult to memorize and manually reproduce. As a result, long URLs must be copied-and-pasted for reliability. Thus, short URLs may be more convenient for websites or hard copy publications (e.g. a printed magazine or a book), the latter often requiring that very long strings be broken into multiple lines (as is the case with some e-mail software or internet forums) or truncated.
On Twitter and some instant-messaging services, there is a limit to the number of characters a message can carry. Using a URL shortener can allow linking to web pages which would otherwise violate this constraint. Some shortening services, such astinyurl.com and bit.ly, can generate URLs that are human-readable, although the resulting strings are longer than those generated by a length-optimized service. Finally, URL shortening sites provide detailed information on the clicks a link receives, which can be simpler than setting up an equally powerful server-side analytics engine.
URLs encoded in two-dimensional barcodes such as QR code are often shortened by a URL shortener in order to reduce the printed area of the code or allow printing at lower density in order to improve scanning reliability.
It's very easy to use and I highly recommend it.
Take a look below!