Kevin Gilbertson is an American web developer best known as the creator of TinyURL launched in January 2002.[1] [2] TinyURL is a URL shortener, a web service that provides short aliases for redirection of long URLs.[3]
According to Wired, Gilbertson had been riding unicycles since he was a kid, and created TinyURL to convert postings on unicycling newsgroups into Web pages (since fewer people know their way around newsgroups than the Web).[4] Google's AdSense links covered operating costs.
Gilbertson, known by friends as "Gilby," lives in Mexico with his wife. He learned about computers from his father, a software engineer, with whom he also rides unicycles as part of the Twin Cities Unicycle Club.[5]