Original Idea
We'd be lying if this site is a particularly original idea on our part. We first saw a very similar application at Make A Shorter Link by the fine folks at Useful, Inc., and most of the features of lil’url came directly from a programming exercise in similar functionality. In other words, we had some free time, appreciated the usefulness of a site, and thought, "what the hell, let's see if I can throw something similar together to keep our skills reasonably sharp".
Of course, lilurl.com is a good ten characters shorter than makeashorterlink.com, so it should make a shorter link than makeashorterlink.com! ;)
Graphics
Background tile image courtesy of a mildly modified SquidFingers pattern. Everything else, courtesy of the power of CSS.