What is this U2W3 stuff?

U2W3 is a URL redirection service. It allows you to enter a URL (such as a website address) and generate a U2W3 URL, that is something that redirects visitors back to your original URL.

Why would I want to do that?

There are a few reasons why you might want to:

1. You want to put a link into an Email, Tweet or on your Blog but it's a really long URL and sometimes they look odd or go a bit funny, especially in email messages. So, you can paste that long URL into U2W3 and generate a short URL that people can click on or type into their web browser to get redirected to your original long URL.

For example:

This is an article on the BBC News website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8087555.stm

And this is the same as a U2W3 URL: http://u2w3.com/-1234

(OK, in this example the BBC URL isn't really long or troublesome, but you get the point)

2. If you sign-up for an account with U2W3 you can view stats on any U2W3 URL's you create. This means you can track the number of hits (redirects) that U2W3 receives. You can also check out where people click the URL from (say you have it on your blog and company site) and the top web browsers that people are using to visit your U2W3 URL.

Is it free?

Yes. U2W3 is currently in beta and it's free to sign-up and use. When it comes out of beta we may charge or we may not (probably not), but if you sign-up now when it's in beta you can certainly keep your free account going for as long as the service is available.

Enter a URL and generate a U2W3 URL that you can use in emails or on your blog to redirect people back to the original URL.

Public shared U2W3 URL's are the same for everybody, ie, if 100 people create a redirect to www.bbc.co.uk the U2W3 URL will be exactly the same for all of them. You can still track stats for these URL's but they will not be unique to you. Public shared U2W3 URL's are prefixed with a - (minus) sign.

Sign-up or Login to create U2W3 URL's which are unique to you and allow you to view basic statistics on the number of hits (redirect requests), top referers and user agents (browsers).

URL:

 

PIN:

  Create (or return an existing) public shared U2W3 URL
(You must have signed-up and be logged in to generate non-public shared U2W3 URL's)

This is a beta service. There are no guarantees as to the availability or suitability of this service for any purpose whatsoever. Any and all U2W3 URL redirects may be removed at any time without warning. You agree not to use this service to create U2W3 URL's which redirect to questionable, obscene or illegal content. Information such as your IP address and web browser user agent may be stored. You must be 18+ (or legally considered an adult in your country of residence if residing outside of the UK) to use this service.

© copyright UTOPIA 365 LLP 2009. All Rights Reserved.

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