I use the goo.gl URL shortener quite a bit, and I find it seriously annoying to always be forced to open the website of the service in a new window. That is why, as the lazy person I am, I found a solution to bring the shortener closer to my fingertips.
The browsers I use most are Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, so here are solutions for these two.
Firefox
In Mozilla Firefox, the extension we’ll be using is called goo.gl lite, and it’s one that does exactly as advertised. First of all, install it from here. In order to do so, just click Add to Firefox and Allow the extension to install, then click Install Now.
All you need, before actually being able to use the extension, is to let Firefox perform a restart — which is always annoying when installing Firefox extensions. After the restart all you need to do is right-click on a page and select Copy Goo.gl URL for This Page which appears as a new option in the context menu.
The page URL will be copied to your clipboard and ready for you to send to a friend or colleague.
Google Chrome
If Google Chrome’s your browser of choice, fear not, we have you covered, too. Check out the extension called ShortenMe, also very easy to use. Once installed, you’ll notice a new button in your Chrome toolbar, looking as seen below.
Once you click said button, the Goo.gl URL of the page you’re viewing is automatically copied to the clipboard, and you’ll also get a QR code which you can scan with one of these apps and open the page directly on your mobile device. Or, another cool extension you can use to shorten URLs in Chrome is goo.gl URL Shortener.
Do you have a favorite URL shortener that you use? Leave a comment and let us know!
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carmen
Do these do the same thing as http://tinyurl.com/ ?
That was the only one I was aware of before reading this–I like how it gives the option of customizing the link and how it’s instant (no CAPTCHA).
Brian Burgess
Hi carmen. Yes it’s essentially the same thing, It takes a super long URL and shortens it to something that’s much more manageable.
Here’s a few other articles on URL shortener’s you might find interesting:
In SkyDrive — http://goo.gl/UdAwv
is.gd — https://www.groovypost.com/howto/geek-stuff/is-gd-shortens-urls-your-way-review/