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shorten links

URL shortening services have been around for ages. You've probably tried a few of them: Bit.ly, tinyurl,  Goo.gl, Is.gd, Ow.ly, Doiop.com and the humourous Arseh.at and ShadyURL are all familiar shorteners seen around the Internet.

A new player on the market, BridgeURL, has taken URL shortening to a completely new level by allowing one short URL to point to multiple links at once. It's such a simple step on from the original idea of shortening URLs, but it's quite a revolutionary game-changer in terms of potential usage.

Who Would Use This?

The ability to share multiple links with one URL will be a great asset to users of microblogs and social networks, eg. for Twitter and Facebook updates.

Twitter users are especially heavy users of URL shorteners, due to the 140 character limitation on Tweets and the fact that user profiles can only link to one URL. An innovation such as this can make it much easier to share a lot of information in just one tweet. The possibilities are endless!

How Do You Use It?

shorten links

BridgeURL is unbelievable easy to use. You don't need to sign up - just visit BridgeURL, choose a name and add your links.

The resulting URL is formed to use the name you gave it, which makes it friendly for human eyes.

shorten web links

When you click on the short URL, you're taken to a page which brings up your links in iFrames. This is known as "slideshow mode". To move between your links, there are Previous/Next arrows in the top left and right. If you like, it's easy to pop out the frame and view the page within (here's mine).

shorten web links

It's also possible to view your links all at once "” there's a link option below the main one you received previously (or just add /all to the end of your URL). This is perhaps not such a great idea if you have used lots of links or linked to media-rich sites. But it could be useful for display purposes.

shorten web links

It's all so simple and it looks great!

Limitations

Before you get too excited, the fact that BridgeURL uses iFrames means that websites that don't allow their pages to be shown in iFrames will not be able to be incorporated into your short URL. Sadly, this includes Facebook, Myspace and Paypal. However, there are still plenty of other sites it will work with and in the meantime, BridgeURL is working on a solution.

Ideas For Use

There are so many great things you could do with a service like this. Consider a few of these ideas and see what that prompts you to come up with.

Links to your best social media profiles (well, except Facebook) and websites. A personal URL could link to your Twitter profile; personal blog; YouTube profile; favourite books; favourite music and favourite movies.

A professional URL could link to your LinkedIn profile; professional blog; your employer's website and some examples of your work (portfolio).

Daily News

If you regularly browse several news sources, why not link them all together? Take it all in using one easy link.

shorten links

Where do you go first thing in the morning? Gmail, news, favourite Twitter list, weather, etc.

Inspiration

Do you have several sites you visit for creative inspiration? Link them all together and browse them as a group!

Boredom Busters

When you're bored (or your kids are bored), do you cycle through your favourite online games? Why not link them up?

Sharing With Friends

Think about things you could share: 10 favourite YouTube clips? Handful of things that made you laugh today? Cutest puppies ever? Recipes? Your favourite photos from your holiday?

For an added stroke of genius, why not link your shortened URL to a QR code? From there, you could print the code on the back of a business card or just entertain your friends while they commute!

make shorter links

If you've had a great idea for using BridgeURL, please let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Shutterstock