Methods and apparatus for realizing a short URL service are provided. According to a long URL, a short URL and long URL information are generated and stored. The long URL information contains the long URL and an information ID, and the information ID corresponds to the short URL via a pre-set corresponding mechanism to provide a corresponding relationship there-between. When a target long URL is acquired based on the short URL, the long URL in the long URL information is obtained as the target long URL according to the corresponding relationship between the short URL and the information ID. The target long URL obtained according to the short URL is updated by updating the long URL in the long URL information.