Thanks to the rise of microblogging, URL shorteners have become a league of their own. Sites like Bit.ly, TinyURL and others have managed to turn mile-long URLs into short, concise (and customizable) nuggets of text. So what’s the latest news with the tr.ims and is.gds of the world?

Recently, the big players have announced tools of their own. Google now has goo.gl, however they plan to monitor its use in the Google toolbar and Feedburner before deciding to make it a standalone tool. This could tone down its use for now, since other shorteners are highly accessible.

Facebook also just jumped on the train with FB.me. Mobile updates for Facebook are already using it to save characters in your SMS field. With more people tweeting and posting media to Facebook from their smartphones, FB.me URLs are starting to draw more visibility on Twitter, and in general. This could make it a more popular alternative to the other contenders soon enough.

But what can shorteners do for brands? From a content standpoint, it’s a great way to keep your messaging consistent with your campaign. In the old days, common practice would be to attach a long URL to the end of your copy, but that was such a mess for your audience. Bit.ly makes it very easy to customize your new URL. By tacking on a keyword at the end, you can help prevent your messaging from getting lost in translation. And just like hashtags, shortened URLs can be easily tracked, too.

A few sites have even adopted custom shorteners for their domains. Awe.sm is a platform that has made it possible for publications like TechCrunch and many others. When you consider the wide variety of platforms you’re utilizing to share your content, it’s a very impactful approach.

There’s no reason leave your URLs as a cryptic 2 to 3 lines of text. Create your own and share it!