Twitter grants users' wish for URL shortner

Micro logging site Twitter has finally granted a longstanding wish of users, with the introduction of an automatic URL shortner.

Many users had complained that its 140-letter cap often made it impossible to include long URLs in tweets, which forced them to use URL shortening services like bitly.

Announcing the new feature on its blog, Twitter said, "Today, we're releasing something that many of you have been asking for - automatic link shortening on Twitter.com."

The company said users need to, "Just paste a link of any length into the Tweet box on Twitter.com. After you've composed your Tweet and you hit the "Tweet" button, we'll shorten the link so that it only takes up 19 characters."

For users who want analytics for their links, the company said, "You can continue to use your favorite third-party link shortening services".

The feature had been missing in the social networking site ever since its launch, and though many third party providers had come in to fill the void, some users had a preference for staying within the Twitter environment, just posting shorter messages instead.