When it comes to the Internet, shorter has never been sweeter than it is today.

Given the rise of shared content enablers and the shrinking space available for brands to create that crucial first impression, (not to mention the short attention spans of today’s multi-platform connected consumers), wise Internet strategists are increasingly on the prowl for shorter URLs. Not just any short URLs, but meaningful, memorable and highly brandable ones.

So, why are short URLs so popular?

Today’s consumers are exposed to more content than ever before -- and have more choices in how their own content gets delivered and shared on the web. Changes in technology, preferred communication channels and user behaviors have given rise to a host of URL shortening services. There’s Bit.ly, Awe.sm, Tinyurl and tr.im. And now, even the mighty Google has its own shortener, goo.gl. The message is clear, g.et sh.ort o.r g.et o.ut!

As convenient as these services are for consumers, for brand owners it’s a different story. Every time branded content is shared using one of these services, it is not the company’s brand that gets prominence in the shared link, but rather the shortening service. For instance, a tweet from AnyNewspaperUSA might have the URL http://www.AnyNewspaperUSA.com/some-long-article-title-would-be-shown-here – and have the corresponding short link of http://bit.ly/Example. Yes, the short link is much nicer for the reader. But for the brand – not so much! Who’s the author? Where is the brand identity? Marketers are losing out on a valuable opportunity to build or reinforce a relationship through association by not being visible in the stream of shared content.

So how does a brand deliver a short, memorable brand impression each time someone shares its content? How do you get consumers to connect the dots between impression, content and your brand’s identity by clicking through – and sharing your content with friends, fans and followers? Several prominent Internet brands, have found the answer in the .CO domain extension. These companies are extending their brand and reaching new audiences through the use of branded, easy to remember url shorteners.

Take Twitter -- after using both tinyurl and bit.ly as its URL shortener, the company opted for the T.CO domain to help ensure greater control over its brand. All tweets with embedded links now pass through the t.co shortener as an enhanced security wrapper, but still display the original source to the reader. A win-win for all parties concerned. Likewise, Go Daddy launched X.CO. Platform agnostic, X.CO provides a free, state-of-the-art shortening service to both GoDaddy customers – and the broader consumer audience. From a features standpoint, X.CO lets you track and compile statistics on who is clicking your link, from where, and how often. Plus, you can even create customized vanity short links for marketing campaigns, blogs and email.

Beyond T.CO and X.CO, many others are enthusiastically scooping up .CO domain names to serve as URL shorteners. Some of the more interesting examples are: 1) the well-known political journal Politico, which uses Politi.co; 2) the ever popular Denver Broncos football team, which uses dbron.co/s; 3) the industry leading venture capital blog Venture Hacks, which uses vh.co as its shortener; 4) the popular technology blog Engadget, which uses Engt.co and 5) the global credit card company American Express, which uses aexp.co.

So why the uptake of .CO as a URL Shortener?

To start, .CO is a natural shortener for any .com, .co.uk and .co.whatever-else (eg, .co.jp, .co.il, .co.kr, etc.) And in these days of social media where every character counts, and 140 characters can change the world – the value of one less character in your domain name can not be underestimated. Given its brevity, I would venture to guess that T.CO was more valuable to Twitter to serve as its official url shortener than T.com would have been, had it been available. As it turns out, one character domain names are not available in .com, and the two and three character domain have been long ago allocated. At least for now, .CO is a wide open name space -- and the opportunities to get a short, memorable web addresses are plenty.

More and more savvy brands recognize the value of branded short domains, and are capitalizing on the opportunities presented by the share-centric mindset of today’s connected consumers. With custom, short .CO URLs, brands can break through the babel that plagues the shared content movement and capture that most revered of all spaces – mindspace. Forget sacrificing brand value. Now you can have your cake (-- shorten unwieldy URLs…) and eat it too (-- while preserving and promoting your brand). Yummy!