Facebook getting a feature film about its origins got me thinking about how the Internet has been portrayed on film — particularly the dot-com business side and the fake websites that movies have to create to further their plot. Check out a few of my favorite fake URLs from the big screen!
The uber helpful Tinyurl is great for sending shortened links to friends and posting on Twitter, but it sure does take a lot of steps to complete the task. First you have to copy the link, go to Tinyurl, paste, make your link tiny, then go back over to your Twitter page (or email draft, IM, whatever) and paste the shortened link. Sounds like a lot of steps, right?
With the new Firefox extension called Social Whale, the process of shortening a URL has been reduced to two steps. Yes, two. Social Whale is free to download to Firefox, and adds a small whale icon to the bottom right of your browser for safe keeping. Once you're on a page you want to link to, all you have to do is click on the whale icon, and Social Whale automatically shortens the link and copies it to your clipboard. Then, the only thing you have to do is paste the link into your email, IM, or Twitter page. You're then free to continue your web browsing, knowing you just saved yourself like a whole 10 to 20 seconds of time. Personally, I need all the time I can get.
But Social Whale isn't just a one-trick pony. See what else it can do, when you read more
With Twitter capping our tweets at 140 characters, many of us have had to find creative ways to make sure we can say what we want to say, without going over the character limit. Want to include a long link in your tweet? Forget about it. But thanks to some handy URL shortening sites, you can include all the links you want (well don't go overboard) . . . It's amazing what you can cram into 140 characters!
Financial consulting firm Dillon/Edwards Investments took too long to establish a website on the Internet, so when they finally got around to it, all the good URLs were taken. They didn't get their first-choice web address, but they compromised and got something that'll suffice. No big deal. It all worked out in the end.
Here's a helpful shortcut tip from tips4mac for all you
Firefox users. The next time you go to type in a URL in the address bar, stop typing before the ".com" part and hit "command-enter." This shortcut key sequence will instantly insert the ".com" part and direct you to a particular site. Try with geeksugar and hit "command+enter," it will instantly add the .com! "Shift +enter" will also add ".net" and "shift+command+enter" will add ".org."
This is a great tip, but I've also found that hitting enter will sometimes add the ".com" as well so I guess you just never know (although for the .net and .org this is really useful).
If you're looking for a quick and easy way to email co-workers, friends, or family members cool links from your MacBook, give this geek tip a whirl.
Press command-shift-I, which will open your email and automatically insert the URL from the website you were visiting into the body of your email. Just type in the recipient's name, give it a subject and click send, and in seconds your website will be shared with others.
