Here's how you can truncate text using only CSS. It works in IE 6+, Safari 4+, Firefox 7+, Opera 11+ and Chrome 10+:

.link_truncated {
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    display: inline-block;
    width: 275px;
    white-space: nowrap;
    overflow: hidden;
    vertical-align: top;
}

P.S. from here

What is text-overflow? http://www.css3.info/preview/text-overflow/

How to implement it nowadays for the most popular browsers?

Here is a solution:

style.css

    .wrapper span
    {
        display:block;
        overflow:hidden;
        white-space:nowrap;
        width:100%;
        -moz-binding:url("ellipsisxul.xml#ellipsis");
        text-overflow:ellipsis;
        -o-text-overflow:ellipsis;
    }

ellipsisxul.xml

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <bindings xmlns="www.mozilla.org/xbl" xmlns:xbl="www.mozilla.org/xbl" xmlns:xul="www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul">
        <binding id="ellipsis">
            <content>
                <xul:window>
                    <xul:description crop="end" xbl:inherits="value=xbl:text">
                        <children/>
                    </xul:description>
                </xul:window>
            </content>
     
        </binding>
    </bindings>

CSS file that resets browser defaults:

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
b, u, i, center,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
	margin: 0;
	padding: 0;
	border: 0;
	outline: 0;
	font-size: 100%;
	vertical-align: baseline;
	background: transparent;
}
body {
	line-height: 1;
}
ol, ul {
	list-style: none;
}
blockquote, q {
	quotes: none;
}
blockquote:before, blockquote:after,
q:before, q:after {
	content: '';
	content: none;
}

/* remember to define focus styles! */
:focus {
	outline: 0;
}

/* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */
ins {
	text-decoration: none;
}
del {
	text-decoration: line-through;
}

/* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */
table {
	border-collapse: collapse;
	border-spacing: 0;
}

Via Meyerweb