If I'm shown two different programs that do the same thing, the stylista in me will always pick the more stylish or cuter looking interface. Why? Because I like stylish and I'm a sucker for cute. Design is utmost important to me, and cute makes me happy.
Yes, function is important but not everything. If the cuter one has enough of the crucial functions I need but doesn't have all the bells & whistles than another plainer looking version, that's okay. In my opinion, I think many right brainers are similar in that choice, and web services need to factor interface design and feeling into their products. We lifestyle websters care very much about design and how something feels.
The cutest way to make tiny urls is MooUrl. I love the MooUrl because it feels happy, easy, and brightly colorful. Typically, you would need to use a url shrinker for things where you are only allowed limited character space like on Twitter or for sending a text to a cell where you don't want to send a link that is like 100 characters long.
Now there are many other services that will make you tiny urls like these 5 favorite over at Lifehacker. All these shrinkers are all very good and functional, and can even give you charts and data to track activity. The feature I like in MooUrl is the ability to personalize the url which you can do too on TinyURL and SnipURL, but those two don't have the utter cuteness of the cow.
For example, in the screen capture I took, I mooed an url for this post from my food blog Noshtopia, "Are all natural or organic junk foods better for you?"
The original url looks like this:
http://www.noshtopia.com/2008/12/are-all-natural-or-organic-junk-foods-better-for-you.html
After moo shrinking, I have a choice of:
http://moourl.com/u4uuzf
or
http://moourl.com/junkfoods
Of course, I like the latter because when my readers see it, there is another reference to what the url is about over some random ambiguous number.
Do I care about the url lasting forever or tracking the traffic of my MooUrls? No, because the only time I use or need the tiny urls is for micro blogging like on Twitter or sending a text on a cell. That type of communication is normally for one time use only. I would care about tracking if I wanted to show just how influential my Twitters were, but at this point, brands or future employers/clients mostly care only about how many followers you have because there is the assumption that a big following means big influence.
So, have some fun and go milk some tiny urls at MooUrl.
