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5 Ways to Create Shortened URLs Now that Goo.gl is Gone

ByRichard Byrne

At about this time last year Google announced that their URL shortening service, Goo.gl, would be shuttered within a year. That time has come and as of yesterday, Goo.gl is dead. Goo.gl was never my first choice of shortener because you couldn’t customize the shortened URL. Here are my top choices for URL shortening.

Bitly.com is my preferred URL shortening tool. With a free Bitly account you can customize your shortened URLs into things that is easy to remember and type rather than just using the randomly-generated default URL. With a free account you can also track the number of clicks that your link receives.

TinyURL might be the most recognized name among URL shortening services. It has been around since 2002 and is used by millions of people. It’s a simple and reliable service. Like Bitly, TinyURL lets you customize your shortened URL.

Yellkey is a good choice if you only need a shortened URL for a short time. With Yellkey you can have your shortened URL self-destruct within 24 hours of its creation. Yellkey shortens URL into words that are familiar and easy to spell. For example: yellkey.com/spend

Share Bundles of Links

FatURL is a handy little tool to use when you need to share a group of links to someone. To share a group of links through FatURL just copy and paste or type URLs into the bundle box. You can add comments to each link. After creating your bundle hit the share button to send it. .

Create QR Codes

One of the features of Goo.gl that was popular was the QR code generator. If you find yourself looking for a new QR code generator, I recommend trying QR Droid. Watch my short video to see how it work.

Spring & Summer PD Opportunities With Me

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This year there are five Tuesdays in April and I’m hosting a PD webinar on each of them. The first one is 5 Ways to Blend Technology Into Outdoor Lessons. 

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