Help

What is LO.LY?

It is a URL shortening service. For Twitter and other places where characters are limited, you can share links even if they are super long, using a URL shortening service.

How do I use LO.LY?

Paste (or type in) your URL (starting with http://) into the "Long URL:" box at the top of any page of LO.LY, then click the "Shorten" button.

How do I make a custom short URL?

Put in your Long URL first, then in the box below it type in a custom name, for a topic, product, company, person, whatever. Then click the "Shorten" button.

Can you make a little button thing to make it easier?

Drag this link to your bookmark bar, then when you are on a page, just click it!

Shorten with LO.LY

Can I preview a link before I click it?

Sure! Sometimes you want to know where the link goes to before you click it. Get the page title and the Long URL of a LO.LY link by just adding ?p or ?preview at the end of a link. Let's say I see a link... http://lo.ly/vf ... but I want to know what it links to first. I would just add ?p or ?preview on the end, like:

http://lo.ly/vf?p
http://lo.ly/vf?preview

How can I hide links I don't care about?

There is a light grey link [hide] for each link you've made in "My Link History". Click on that to hide it from your history. Don't worry, the link will still work, you just don't have to look at it in your list anymore. If you accidentally hide one, go to the info page for the link and a "show" link will let you put it back in your list.