Yes, we all get the red warning from time to time. 

Within Tweetdeck or Twitter, I use bitly  to automatically shorten my links. But, there are several to choose from such as Ow.ly, or TinyURL.com, all you need to do is to search for one that will work for you.

Everyone knows how to shorten your own post within WordPress. Use the Get Shortlink button!

But how do you shorten a link that is not yours?

What do you do when you want to share a link plus add comments?

I use goo.gl URL Shortener which is an add-on to my toolbar. Here is a few of features for the Google shortener add-on.

• Official goo.gl API support
• Official goo.gl history/dashboard support with OAuth
• Auto copy to clipboard
• Keyboard shortcut
• Context menu
• QR Code
• Highly customizable
• Incognito mode
• Share with your default mail client
• Share with many different services 100zakladok, AOL Mail, Baidu, Bebo, Blip, Blogger, Bobrdobr, Delicious, Diaspora*, Digg, Diigo, Evernote, Facebook, Formspring, FriendFeed, Friendster, Gmail, Google Bookmarks, Google+, Hatena, Hyves, Hotmail, Identi.ca, Instapaper, iWiW, Lifestream, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mail, Mail.ru, meinVZ, Menéame, Mister Wong, Multiply, MySpace, Netlog, NUjij, OKNOtizie, Orkut, Oyyla, Ping.fm, Plaxo, Plurk, Pocket, Reddit, Segnalo, Sina Weibo, Sonico, Springpad, studiVZ, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Tuenti, Tumblr, Twitter, TwitThat, TwitThis, Viadeo, VKontakte, Wykop, XING, Yahoo! Bookmarks, Mail, Yammer

(Hate to admit this but I’ve never heard of some of these.)

Don’t want an add-on? 

Well, Google may still be the site for you.

Just head over to the Google URL Shortener web page. Bookmark this page and use it to shorten the links. Super simple.

Have you ever failed to share because the link is too big?

Do you think using one of these will make it easier to share?

Do you already use a link shortener? Which one do you like best?

Talk to me in the comments section, I’d love to hear from you! You can also click the “write me” tab or contact me onTwitter @jeancogdell, Facebook at jean.cogdell and Amazon.com, stop by and say hey! The lights are on and I’m waiting.

Please remember to share this post with your Twitter  peeps andFacebook fans.