Patent ID: 8281232

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having executable computer program instructions embodied therein for generating a shortened version of a URL, wherein actions of the computer program instructions comprise: receiving a request to create a message, the request including an original URL; receiving a selection of a service from among a plurality of services for sending the message; determining a maximum message character length associated with the service; determining a current character length of the message; determining a number of characters that remain available in the message based on the maximum message length and on the current character length; generating a plurality of shortened URL candidates for the original URL based on the number of characters that remain available, wherein at least one of the candidates has text related to at least one of: text of the original URL, content pointed to by the original URL, and a rating of the content pointed to by the original URL; receiving a selection of one of the plurality of candidates; and responsive to the received selection, registering the selected candidate with a URL-shortening service; and embedding the selected candidate in the message, and sending the message via the selected service.