TinyUrl 2.0 supports multiple services

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One of the most requested features for the TinyUrl Creator extension is to support other URL shrinking services like bit.ly and is.gd. After some dedicated research and development I have been able to add the following seven URL shrinking services to the latest version of TinyUrl (v2.0):

To change the service you’re using click Tools > Options and select the service from the dropdown list.

If you prefer another URL shrinking service and would like it to be added to this extension, leave a comment here to let me konw. Be sure to check if the service has an API, because if they don’t the extension will have to resort to screen scraping; which is pretty ugly.

Install TinyUrl Creator

Thanks for all your support.

Comments

  1. Jeremy,

    TinyURL no longer works for me. As of 1.0.5 it doesn’t work. When I use it to make a link it puts some weird characters in the link. For example:

    This link:
    http://www.speakerrepair.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=BS8&Category_Code=black_chrome

    Gets turned into this:
    http://www.speakerrepair.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc%3FScreen%3DPROD%26Product_Code%3DBS8%26Category_Code%3Dblack_chrome

    All versions prior to 1.0.5 worked fine. I am also using Firefox 2.0.0.16.

    Hope you can fix it, because I rely on this add-on every day. 🙂

  2. Jeremy, thanks for all of your extensions. It’s greatly appreciated. However, TinyURL 1.5 & 2.0 do not work with urls that have a ? (maybe other special characters too) in them. Just thought you’d like to know.

  3. hi jeremy!
    i have the same problem as the above commenters. tried v. 1.0.5 as well as 2.0 with firefox 2.0.0.16.

    apart from this little bug, i think this is one of the most useful firefox add-ons out there.

  4. A great extension. I am running FF v3.0.1 on a Kubuntu Hardy Heron linux machine. I have noticed that TinyUrl is mis-mapping many links. Twice I tried to map http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjM3MQ and I get http://tinyurl.com/63zuje which take me to http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

    I notice that the correct link flashes for an instant before reverting to the incorrect one.

    Since this is a free piece of software, I am in no position to complain. So I wont. Just wanted to let your know.

  5. Was using 1.0.5 version from Firefox extensions page when I wrote of previous problem. Installed from this site new version 2.0. When I used tiny.url shrinking service I got same problem.

    But when I switched to bit.ly service, problem disappeared.

    Thanks for all hard work.

  8. TinyURL Creator is a fantastic idea but as others have said Version 1.0.4 was the last version that worked reliably for me. Here’s hoping its a simple thing to fix.

  9. Ditto on the problems with certain characters in the URL. However, as a work around, if you install the 2.0 version and switch (so far, just tried this one) to the Shrunklink provider, the problem goes away.

  10. Wish I’d have found this blog about two weeks ago – after tearing my hair out trying to figure out why TinyURL Creator was no longer working, I see that apparently when I upgraded to FF3 (and therefore upgraded TinyURL Creator) I ran into a known bug. Any URL with special characters ($,#, space, etc) generates an invalid Tinyurl. I can get a good Tinyurl by going directly to http://www.tinyurl.com and entering the url, but it just doesn’t work with the extension. I did notice that bit.ly works fine, so I guess I’ll be using that one for the time being.

  11. I use your plugin extensively for posting links to Ebay auctions in forum groups. I’m using the latest version of it with FireFox ver. 3.0.1 and it creates bad links to any Ebay auction page I try it with. I can create the same link from the Tinyurl homepage and it works fine.

    Here’s an example for you to test. There are two links on this page, the first one was created using your tinyurl pluugin for FireFox, the 2nd was created from the Tinyurl home page.
    http://goldwingfacts.com/forums/forum5/53451.html

  12. i had also been facing problem with tinyurl.com. So i was looking for an alternative. I found this one – http://turl.us . turl.us is much better than tinyurl.com. I now use http://turl.us. It provides complete stats and bulk submission. Also i can edit my urls anytime.

  13. I think the URL garbling may have only started for me after the 3.0.1 update, but it’s definitely happening to me now as well.

  14. Jeremy — the problem referred to above with URL garbling has been a problem even prior to my upgrade to 2.0. It appears that CGI-style URLs are susceptible to this; important characters are being URL-encoded that should not be.

  15. Unfortunately, I have to confirm what everyone else is saying: TinyURL Creator hasn’t been encoding querystring information correctly from quite some time. Plus, the links on both Mozilla and MozMonkey still point to old versions of TURL-C.

  16. I’ve just come across this post, and I’m the creator of shrinkthislink.com – listed above as shrunklink.com, one of the domains that it shrinks to. I haven’t tried out this extension, as I made a Firefox extension long ago for shrinkthislink – which provides several different ways to interact with it. See http://shrinkthislink.com/helpers/ for more information.

    Also, this blog post is from before the option of shrinking to the domain urlm.in – since your extension provides a list of services, you may wish to add the option to shrink to urlm.in – drop me a line if you’d like to know how to do this.

  17. Hello Mr. Gillick,
    I’m an Italian Mozilla fanboy and I’ve just discovered your TinyURL Creator extension. I think it’s an useful extension but it could be better; my suggestion is to allow tinyurl creation not only in the browser page (this can be done via bookmarklet) but in the address bar and in history sidebar too (via right click). This implementation could boost extension productivity and give better features than any bookmarklet.

    Hope you’ll find my suggestion interesting.

    However, thanks for all the hard work with Firefox extensions!

    Sincerly,

    RNiK

    P.S. I’m writing here ’cause your e-mail address for extensions support doesn’t seem to work anymore.

  20. Would you please solve the problems with some links, like from eBay. It’s mentioned in this comments above.
    Your program is the best one I’ve found for TinyURL, but it cannot work with every link – so it is useless.
    Thank you for your efforts!