Shorten URLs from Gmail account

Few days back, I wrote an article about adding Twitter gadget to your Gmail account. Now, you need short URLs to be submitted as tweet or it will become a tinyurl automatically. Bit.ly offers a Gmail gadget which allows you to shorten URLs right from Gmail account.

One may argue that what’s the use when Twitter itself shortens long URL using tiny URL but I recommend using bit.ly as it has following benefits.

Bit.ly too is a URL shortening service with a slight difference.

• As a Blogger it’s of great advantage because bit.ly digs out other Meta data information of the shortened URL
• It keeps statistics of number of clicks and its source.
• You can directly post URLs to twitter, facebook,etc. from homepage
• Registration is not compulsor (in tinyurl too), it keeps its cookies but why not sign-up?

Using bit.ly can help the blogger track how many hits did that URL get and from which service.

So either do it by visiting bit.ly or add its gadget to Gmail by entering this URL in Add gadget by URL box :