On Monday 22 March 2010 21:36:00 Graeme Hilton wrote:
> >> You can use goo.gl to shorten google results. I use it as a chrome
> >> extension. Your link above can be shortened to  http://goo.gl/yj4h
> >
> > Thanks, John.  But erm... how?  That is the problem.  I can't work out
> > how to
> > actually _do_ it.  From where did you get the yj4h??
>
> Lisi,
>
> Other services, like http://tinyurl.com or http://bit.ly do the same
> thing, but for all urls, not just googles.
>
> Copy a long url [1], go to the website [2]  that will perform the
> shortening and paste the url into the obvious box.  Press the
> "shorten" button and the website generates a short url [3] that you
> can then easily cut and paste into an email without fear of it
> splitting over lines.
>
> [1]
> http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Southampton,+Hampshire,+United+Ki
>ngdom&ll=50.904966,-1.403234&spn=0.170171,0.225563&t=h&z=12 [2]
> http://bit.ly/
> [3] http://bit.ly/cnQsal
>
> bit.ly also offer the facility to track the number of clicks on the
> link that you've shortened, as well as providing a file-sharing
> facility and direct access to twitter from the bit.ly homepage.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Graeme Hilton
Thanks to you too, Graeme. :-))   All help gratefully received.  I'll try 
those out tomorrow too.  I am barely awake at the moment!!
Lisi