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With the rise in the use of social networking sites such as Twitter , URL shortening/expanding has been brought to regular use with much significance. It is really easy to share the short URLs generated by using URL shortening services and the post also remains clean with the use of shortened URLs. We need not worry about the original URL because it can be easily again regenerated by using URL expanding services.

To use these services, most of the time we have to visit the URL shortening/expanding websites. Although its helpful, isn’t it waste of time to visit the sites when you can simply install the URL shortening/expanding extensions for Google chrome and do the work in the same browser without leaving the page ? Here, in this post, we will introduce you with extensions for Google Chrome that are specialized to do URL shortening or expanding or both at the same time.

1) Goo.gl URL Shortener

Goo.gl URL Shortener is an extension which allows you to shorten the current website URL with the Google URL Shortener. The generated URL has less number characters than in those generated by other URL shortener and can be shared with default mail client as well as with other services such as Twitter, Facebook , Blogger , Myspace , Yahoo! Mail , Gmail , etc.

2) URL Shortener

URL Shortener is the extension that shortens the URL using several number of shortening services such as TinyURL , Bit.ly, shorl, turl.ca, hex.io and idek.

3) Bit.ly Shortener

Bit.ly Shortener is the extension that shortens URL with the Bit.ly sidebar and sends them straight to the services such as Twitter. You can sign in with the Bit.ly account and track the clicks to the links. This extension doesn’t work on sites using https due to Chrome’s security reasons.

4) Little URL

Little URL is the extension that connects to the URL shortening service http://LittleURL.info and quickly shortens the long URL’s in the Chrome browser.

5) Boomerang Hotlink Manager

Boomerang Hotlink Manager shortens very long URLs into social-network-friendly sized URLs  and properly redirects the shortened URLs to their destinations. This extension valid on sites using http only.

6) Untiny

Untiny is the extension for http://Untiny.com . Untiny allows you to expand the shortened URLs and reveal their true destinations. It supports about 229 tiny services such as  .tk , .1u.ro, 2pl.us, flic.kr etc.

7) Chrome URL expander

Chrome URL expander automatically expands the shortened URLs found on the web pages you visit . It uses various URL shortening services.

8 ) View Thru

View Thru is URL expanding extension that expands short URLs and display the full URL as a tool tip over the short URL. It supports the short URLs generated from bit.ly , cli.gs , ff.im , goo.gl , is.gd, nyti.ms, ow.ly , post.ly and su.pr .

9 ) LongURL

LongURL replaces shortnened links using LongURL API and improves speed , usuability and security. About 235 services such as  goo.gl , bit.ly , tinyurl.com, is.gd, etc are supported by LongURL.

10) Explode

Explode uses LongURL service to expand links to any short URL. It operates in the background and does not alter the text or style of anchors.

11 ) ChromeMUSE

ChromeMUSE is an extension for URL shortening and expanding services. It can generate short URL for any web page and expand the short URLs on any page, replacing the target URL with the original. It supports all the popular popular services such as bit.ly, goo.gl, is.gd, Tiny URL and many more.

12) Miniscurl URL Shortener/Expander

Miniscurl allows you to shorten the URL for any webpage or website and save it to the clipboard.  Similarly, it helps you to expand the already shortened URL. You can easily share the shortened URL on Twitter and Facebook. It supports over 50 popular URL shortening and expanding sites including the popular TinyURL.com , bit.ly etc.