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my.opera edition

How to shorten URLs from the Opera address bar

Sunday, October 4, 2009 7:24:38 PM

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Original URL: http://bamatone.livejournal.com/293320.html

Shortening URLs is a popular thing these days, especially for use in Tweeting. You've only got 140 characters to work with, so you can't be linking URLs that use up all your space. Some Twitter clients will shorten URLs for you, but sometimes the client won't do it if your tweet is already over the maximum 140 characters, which is pretty dumb.

The route for a lot of people is to manually visit a URL shortening web site like tinyurl.com or bit.ly, paste the address, then get the shortened URL. But there's a much easier way. Do it directly from the address bar in Opera.

One of the most underrated features of Opera is the ability to create custom searches. In this case, we want to create a custom search that doesn't search at all. First, go to Tools --> Preferences and click on the Search tab. Here you can see some of my custom searches. For example, by typing gi alabama in the Opera address bar and hitting enter, I can do a Google Image search for "alabama."

Custom searches in Opera


Click Add to begin adding our new custom search. You can name it anything you want. Here we'll use is.gd URL Shortener. I decided to use the letter u (for URL) for my keyboard shortcut. You'll want to use http://is.gd/create.php for the address, and URL=%s for the query string.

If you're wondering how I came up with that, I simply reverse engineered an already shortened URL from the resulting URL. Or maybe I did a right-click Create Search from the entry field on the is.gd web site... I don't remember anymore!

Anyway, this is what you end up with:

Custom searches in Opera


Click OK and that's it! From now on, shorten any URL by pasting u (URL) into the Opera address bar and hitting enter.

For example, I want to shorten a Jason Whitlock column located here: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/10084588/NFL-Truths:-McKelvin-deserves-Bills-fans'-boos.

So all I have to do is put this in the address bar: u http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/10084588/NFL-Truths:-McKelvin-deserves-Bills-fans'-boos and hit enter.

The result: http://is.gd/3o8MG

Creating a URL Shortener in Opera


Don't have Opera? Download it for free here: http://my.opera.com/community/opera/get/.

Sports Saturday - 3 Oct 09Free "Obama money" from his "stash!"

Comments

KimberlySqueakeyCat Saturday, October 17, 2009 5:48:25 PM

thats interesting, will have to do that later after i catch up with everyone's posts...lol

Anonymous Tuesday, January 12, 2010 10:58:30 PM

Аноним writes: Your well done writing about this post goes side by side with the student dissertation. Hence, you could even perform for dissertation writing service .

Hilton's BoyfriendHolo3D Friday, January 15, 2010 11:03:01 AM

Wow! up clever there (o)bamatone! yes Thanks for the trick lol

Avola Friday, January 15, 2010 11:45:23 AM

up

Hilton's BoyfriendHolo3D Friday, January 15, 2010 11:52:41 AM

Charlie(status) > has no readers. Now you have.

thobi Friday, January 15, 2010 12:08:01 PM

nice idea up thanks

Joseph D. Lienjdlien Friday, January 15, 2010 12:12:16 PM

This is one of my favorite features in Opera. You can use this to search or quickly access just about any kind of page that you use regularly, and is very powerful.

Linhbrokenheartvn Friday, January 15, 2010 1:36:26 PM

good to know it up
cool idea yes

Charles SchlossChas4 Friday, January 15, 2010 3:22:17 PM

Yep I did the same with TinyURL

Hilton's BoyfriendHolo3D Friday, January 15, 2010 6:28:00 PM

Loans and url shortening! confused

Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl Friday, January 15, 2010 7:58:35 PM

reported.

Anonymous Friday, January 15, 2010 11:17:48 PM

Boemz writes: I wanna download operamini but its can't

Charles SchlossChas4 Friday, January 15, 2010 11:23:44 PM

Boemz try this site:

http://www.opera.com/mini/download/

Anonymous Saturday, January 16, 2010 5:43:07 AM

Chantal at kofifi writes: I'm a young South African, fortunate enuff 2 hav opp to own my own coffee shop. Last yr was rough. My first yr, recession, in the midst of Rea Vaya construction, progress dead slow,fading partners, ever present obstacles. Why bother u ask? Because I have the oppurtunity 2 make my own success. Mine is the real thing, not just a goal I am striving 4. Took a break in Cape Town. 2010 ,I am ready 2 up my game and kick butt. So watch this space and c how I transform kofifi into the first truly South African,"take a walk down memory lane" coffee and venue cafe. cu in Commissioner.

donvillarin Saturday, January 16, 2010 7:08:49 AM

oki doki nice

Anonymous Saturday, January 16, 2010 12:18:35 PM

loop writes: http://is.gd/6njjs

Anonymous Saturday, January 16, 2010 4:28:24 PM

Aisya writes: Heylow

vipin kumarmvk6 Saturday, January 16, 2010 4:55:31 PM

wow!!nice trick cheers !!

Nicolas Chevallierallogarage Saturday, January 16, 2010 7:17:09 PM

Thanks for the tips

Anonymous Saturday, January 16, 2010 8:00:06 PM

Anonymous writes: Nice tip. This was very helpful.

Anonymous Saturday, January 16, 2010 11:43:57 PM

Anonymous writes: Wel tanks 4d info.what about if i am using a mobile opera?hw do i get to shorten my url?

National Voice Gazettejavamanmonk Sunday, January 17, 2010 7:12:25 AM

http://is.gd/6qoPT-

Anonymous Sunday, January 17, 2010 10:52:16 AM

Anonymous writes: gee, just when you thought the web couldn't get any more unnecessarily complicated, this comes along, how nice,

Anonymous Monday, January 18, 2010 4:05:31 AM

Osars Odewigi writes: He who has no plan has already plan to fail

Cutting Spoonhellspork Monday, January 18, 2010 5:15:56 AM

What we need is a way to create extra menu items more easily; r-click a link and select "shorten URL" or such.

CharlieBAMAToNE Monday, January 18, 2010 5:21:09 AM

Cutting Spoon: That's a pretty good idea, and I bet it could be done. up

I'm happy enough with my method, though.

Cutting Spoonhellspork Monday, January 18, 2010 5:26:55 AM

Strangely, Opera is higly extensible without the use of proper "extensions" in the classical sense. Tying some of this together, even just a little more, would be great.

For example if the widget system could add panels, widgets, or standalone apps; if it could tie these in with extra menu items in some fashion. That sort of thing. Yet by using the purer, more documented API, you avoid the unforseen XUL bugs that haunt every Firefox upgrade.

Seansjdgls Monday, January 18, 2010 5:40:46 AM

Thank-you. This is great.

Anonymous Monday, January 18, 2010 11:11:30 AM

Anonymous writes: Great URL Shortener: http://l11.be

chrishall57 Monday, January 18, 2010 12:35:09 PM

Fantastic!

There's so much about Opera still to learn.

Trung tam Sim so depsodepabc Monday, January 18, 2010 2:11:24 PM

A very useful tip. Thank you for sharing.

juergen83 Tuesday, January 19, 2010 12:19:01 PM

Great, very useful!

Anonymous Tuesday, January 19, 2010 1:06:32 PM

Probodh writes: Good

Anonymous Wednesday, January 20, 2010 5:20:34 PM

XReader writes: Been using the custom search for a while now. By far, it's the most useful feature for me, especially with my constant need of using keyboard shortcuts. LOL.

Akiba-keiakiba-kei Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:52:13 AM

this is my result with http://bit.ly/

http://bit.ly/5OngX4

thx for the tip

szantos Thursday, January 21, 2010 12:10:57 PM

Shorten URL with a button

http://tinyurl.com/yk4bop9

Anonymous Thursday, January 21, 2010 5:45:05 PM

Anonymous writes: As another helpful hint, once you make the custom search, you can highlight the url on the webpage, right click, and then select the search in "Search With" submenu. That way you don't have to type it into the address bar.

yeahhhhhhhhorochi65 Friday, January 22, 2010 5:48:27 AM

thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
love ya!!!

Anonymous Friday, January 22, 2010 6:20:55 AM

Anonymous writes: very excellent

CharlieBAMAToNE Friday, January 22, 2010 4:06:24 PM

Thanks to all the great comments! cheers

Anonymous Friday, January 22, 2010 6:25:02 PM

Anonymous writes: I've done this now and am putting u in front of URL in address bar. So now do i save into my favorites?

Charles SchlossChas4 Friday, January 22, 2010 6:27:16 PM

This page?

Anonymous Friday, January 22, 2010 6:30:55 PM

Anonymous writes: this is what i got out of this: opera:illegal-url-9

Anonymous Friday, January 22, 2010 6:34:52 PM

Anonymous writes: yes

Anonymous Friday, January 22, 2010 6:35:20 PM

Anonymous writes: this page

Charles SchlossChas4 Friday, January 22, 2010 6:40:38 PM

Are you trying to use the shortcut?

If you are type u then a space then the url you are shorting

Anonymous Friday, January 22, 2010 6:45:28 PM

lenutaa_mirceaa writes: bbcode and html is turned off anonymous user comments.)lenutaa_mirceaa

Anonymous Friday, January 22, 2010 6:50:14 PM

Anonymous writes: got it figured out I had http://http:// in address bar, I had saved in preferences only had to correct this & works perfectly. thank you kindly..

Anonymous Saturday, January 23, 2010 2:29:18 AM

renojill writes: I can't sign in because I can't get your URL right.

Anonymous Saturday, January 23, 2010 2:31:08 AM

Anonymous writes: How can I sign up withought getting through your URL? I can't give my info any other way.

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