goo.gl & fb.me URL shortener From Google and Facebook

URL shortening is a technique to provide a very short URL in addition to the original address. Shortened URLs use the smallest space possible for including the URL in emails and microblogging sites like Twitter.

Facebook and Google has come up with their own URL shortener services namely fb.me and goo.gl respectively.

fb.me is now rolled out on a limited basis – to be used within facebook for sharing links within facebook and facebook mobile interface. URL shortening is used to shorten the usernames and pages.

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Google also has announced their URL shortening service goo.gl This service is included with the updated versions of the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner.

According to Google Blog,

First, we think people who use the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner will benefit from a shortener that is easily accessible — making it faster and easier to share, post and email links. Second, we’ve built this on Google’s global infrastructure to offer the following benefits:

• Stability: Google’s scalable, multi-datacenter infrastructure provides great uptime and a reliable service to our users.
• Security: As we do with web search, shortened URLs are automatically checked to detect sites that may be malicious and warn users when the short URL resolves to such sites.
• Speed: At Google we like fast products and we’ve worked hard to ensure this service is quick. We’ll continue to iterate and improve the speed of Google Url Shortener.

You cannot use Google URL shortener to shorten links directly, because it is currently not provided as a stand-alone service. Currently it is only available from the Google Toolbar and FeedBurner. Google may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future.