With URL shorteners, it seems as thought Google is one of those companies who decided to make the leap towards this very direction.
Long URL's are simply turned to short ones by way of the build of the websites. Long URL's a shortened to no more than fifteen characters.
There are even famous URL's shorteners that have been used by companies such as Twitter, called Bit.Ly, and this and more information on the subject is spoken of in depth in the article provided by way of the established web link.
Link: news Google incorporates QR codes in its URL shortener
