When you perform a web search on mobile phone using Google SMS, the SMS text message you get back from Google has two parts – web search results and a short URL that redirects to the relevant Google search page.
For instance, Google sent an SMS message with this short URL – m.google.com/u/xva9Ot – for a search query like “Global Warming.”
Noticed a similarity ? The redirection code generated by TinyURL (6xbo7q) and Google SMS search (xva90t) have six characters each.
Since this can just be a coincidence, let’s look at the HTTP Response generated by Google that clearly says “tinyurl_server.”
Google is either using TinyURL service for generating short URLs or there’s another possibility – they may have developed something similar in-house but gave it the same name “tinyurl.”