Within the ETH web pages we often face very long web addresses (URLs) that are hard to handle or even to add to an email body text (URLs gets sometimes split due to automatic line breaks etc.). Long URLs are also not suitable for printing media or posters where users have to type in the long URL by hand.
ETH URL Shortener
With the ETH URL shortener you can shorten ETH internal URLs to a very handy length which are easy to share with other persons or to put in your brochures. Please keep in mind that you can only shorten URLs within the name space *.ethz.ch. But as the huge avantage the short URL will reflect an internal ETH related URL. In case you want to shorten web addresses located outside of the name spaces *.ethz.ch see the section Public URL Shortener below.
Steps to shorten a ETH internal URL
Lets assume we want to shorten the following URL to share with others or for print-outs:
https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/associates/services/Service/rechtliches/bot_merkblatt_fuer_mitarbeitende_0314.pdf
Follow this few steps to shorten the URL:
- Navigate to https://u.ethz.ch/
- Add the URL you want to shorten to the field Enter a new URL to shorten
- After clicking the shorten button the shorten URL will be displayed i.e.
i.e. http://u.ethz.ch/xztNk
- Share the generated short URL to your partners or print it to our print outs, posters etc. Your partner can the enter the short URL and will be forwarded to the actual shortened URL
Additionally you can use the statistic page to get visitors statistics for the related short URL:
http://u.ethz.ch/xztNk+ (simply ad a plus sign behind your shortened URL)
Public URL Shortener
For other URLs than the ones located within the ETH namespace we recommend to use one of the following public URL shortener:
- http://bit.ly
- http://tinyurl.com
The usage of the public URL shorteners are similar to the ETH internal URL shortener; paste the long version of the URL to the input field and receive the shortened URL as an output and use it within your communication.