by Thom Hiatt

Social Media is the thing right now. More now than ever before we are sharing information, getting deals, and commenting about last Friday night.

Web sites like Facebook and Twitter give us the opportunity to share states updates, media, and links to other stuff online. While we are sharing, we have limited space to type. Facebook limits you to just over 400 characters, while Twitter stops you cold at 140. So services like Bit.Ly and Goo.gl have stepped up to help us out.

Suppose you want to share the Google Map of Washington, D.C., found at
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Washington+D.C.,+DC&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=59.856937,124.189453&t=h&z=12

“Gosh, that’s a LOT of characters! That will take up most or all of my space on Twitter! And it will annoy my friends on Facebook!”

Instead of pasting that gigantic string, pop over to visit our friends at Google. Their site goo.gl will shorten things up for you, and it’s free. With their help and about 2 seconds, we transformed the long address into http://goo.gl/x7VkZ

Just copy, paste, and you’re all set.