Every so often, I stumble across a tip so head-smackingly great that I wonder how I ever managed without it. This post from Steve Rubel contains one such killer tip: Bit.ly lets you shorten a URL right from the address bar of any browser. Just type “bit.ly/” or “j.mp/” in the address bar in front of the address you want to shorten — for example: “bit.ly/http://webworkerdaily.com/“:
Hit return and the Bit.ly page that loads contains your shortened link (and if you’re logged into Bit.ly and have integrated it with your Twitter account, you can tweet the link right from that page, too).
Simple, one-step URL-shortening that works in any browser, with no need to mess around with extensions or bookmarklets!
Have a great little tip like this? Let us know about it in the comments.
Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise
I personnaly find that it’s easier and more efficient to have a bookmarklet with a keyword (“keyword” is a property of bookmarks, at least in firefox) than this method*. With the advantage that bookmarklet can redirect you directly to identi.ca or twitter with the status containing the new short URL + the title of the page your linking to for instance. Then you just have to add your little comment and send your message.
the method presented here: ctrl+l bit.ly/
(and the key is rarely used so not at an easy spot on most keyboards).
Yep, if you have bookmarklets set up correctly for your personal usage you can save a step. For people who don’t want to mess around with setting up bookmarklets perfectly, though, the above tip is a neat solution, IMO.
Stupid formatting… the bullet should have been :
(asterisk) – bookmarklet with keyword: ctrl+l kw <RET>
And “the key” in the last sentence is “the <HOME> key”.
Sorry.
I don’t see how this is better than the bookmarklet?
It’s not necessarily better — it’s simpler, you can do it on any browser (even mobile browsers), and you don’t need to clutter up your bookmarks toolbar. If you’re happy with bookmarklets or extensions, that’s great.
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There is also this, much better and simpler:
http://goo.gl/Vgox
that requires an extension, though, so it’s not simpler.
[...] WWD Categories : Tip, [...]
[...] this simple tip (originally from Lifehacker but nicely summarized at Web Worker Daily) shows you how to create a bit.ly shortened URL right in your address bar with no plug-ins or toolbar tricks. Cool. Seen anything great on the interwebs? I hope you’ll [...]
@bitly Shortening via URL bar used to work as shown here (http://t.co/tMLWSPuN). No longer works with bit.ly. Is this on purpose?