You've probably come across this website before, but it's so useful that it definitely deserve special attention.

Imagine having to send a URL to a friend, or use it in a presentation, but it's so long and ungainly that it just makes things sloppy — that's where Tinyurl comes in.

On their website you simply paste the long URL in the specified field, click on the button next to it, and the site spews out a shortened URL for you. This shortened URL will take you to the exact same page as the longer one — and will never change!

For example, putting the URL for this article (http://iafrica.com/technology/coolstuff/webwatch/1577220.htm) through Tinyurl, gave us http://tinyurl.com/ckpa7s as a result. Go ahead, click on both URLs and you'll see it takes you to the exact same place.

Visit www.tinyurl.com to try it out.