Good examples can be:



1. When you want to sell something and don't want the search engines to pick it up.

2. When you want to hide the actual URL from someone else.

3. When the URL is long or ugly, offensive and so on.

4. Just for fun.

5. Any other need.

URL Shortening services such as http://truly.am might just be what you need in these cases.

Why?

Well the answer is simple: They not only allow you to make a much cooler URL i.e. : http://truly.am/cool can point to http://www.google.com. But - they also keep that URL on top at all time hence acting as a safe guard for you and the real site your are surfing throughout it's usage.

In addition these services add a live bookmarking widget to the sites you have shortened thus allowing you to get whoever uses these links to bookmark and save your site/work which is great for traffic and ease of use.

Until now, short url services mainly did a redirect. That means you had added a long/hidden url and got a shorter one back but... when you surfed to that short URL the actual browser URL simply redirected you back to the ugly long URL you stated from.

The new type of short url services (like truly.am) keeps the URL masked and hidden at all times thus protecting your information and URL from being exposed at all times. This is important for people accessing sites from work or school as well as for marketers trying to keep their real site secured and discrete.

As these services are free and limitless you can use them whenever you got even the slightest fear or doubt about exposing your URL . You can always change/delete them later on and ensure your links stay cool and up to date.

How?

Well that is simple:

1. Go to a free short url provider (new age ones are recommended i.e.: http: truly.am).

2. Register (the reason for that is simple ? this will allow you to easily manage/update/delete your links in any point in time later on + it's 100% free anyway).

3. Create 2-3 short URLS with the coolest names you can thing off (examples: truly.am/nice truly.am/sweet and so on?). Make them even if you don't need them ? they will be valuable later on!

4. Test it ? you'll be impressed from the results and you will be happy to share the links with friends as the URLs are clean, safe and most of all friendly.

Summary

Shortening your URL can come useful in many cases: SEO needs, long URLs, sales, black hat, referring sites and more). Newer services offer you full time masking with cool lifelong URLs for free (i.e. http://truly.am/cool) . Taking use of these services now will assure you the best domains and best short urls in the future and it is highly recommended to secure these URL as soon as you can to ensure they are not taken.