Sharing Multiple URL Links at Once

More and more we're living on the net. For many academic physicians, the internet has become a work and a teaching tool. Whether you're sharing sites on a shift or forwarding links to the students, resident or colleague on a subsequent day, URL-shortening services can help you organize your links to favorite URLs, be more efficient, and. keep your email or blog text cleaner.

BIT-dot-LY or BITLY: This simple user interface allows you to enter a URL and get back a shortened version with one click. For example: I love showing my residents Michelle's Trick of the Trade for Irrigating Scalp Lacerations. I search for the blog post and enter the long URL into BITLY, and voi-la:

As you can see, http://academiclifeinem.blogspot.com/2010/01/trick-of-trade-irrigating-scalp.html became http://bit.ly/b50AeV, by entering a URL and a few clicks.

Hot off the press: Sharing URL links at once
This past week, BITLY and others began offering the option to share multiple long-URLs with bundled into one short-URL.

For example, I wanted to share with colleagues links to six of the simulation centers that are affiliated with Harvard Medical School, so instead of sharing all six long-URL's I simply created a bundle and shared. When it was all set and done,six long URLs got bundled elegantly into one: http://bit.ly/cxQWdH.

If you want more information, here is a review and directions from TechCrunch: http://tcrn.ch/dBKzuP.

FYI, you will have to get a free account in Bit.ly to do this. After logging in, you then just type in all the website URLs, separated by a {space}. As you type, each site URL gets shortened (see below). Then click "Bundle". Here is an example:

A single shortened URL link will be created. In this test case, this generated the code: http://bit.ly/bAUQKS. Click on it see the 3 combined links.

There are other sites that offer similar services such as BridgeURL and Clusters.

Happy surfing, sharing, blogging and posting (and Thanksgiving)!

Demian