One of the most frequent comments we get here at Linkee is "are you going to get integrated in <insert favorite client here>?"  The quick answer is: we hope so.  We developed our API with the intent of being included in the most popular twitter clients (and even the most unpopular ones, we're not picky) because the user experience is certainly the most straightforward that way.

That said, there's still a super-easy way to use Linkee to shorten and post to twitter, and it can be done with 2 clicks, once you've set it up for the first time.

Step 1: Create an account

Hopefully if you're reading this, you recognize the value of creating a free account - it will allow you to track your clicks as well as edit and delete your existing links.  Most importantly though, it allows you to link your Twitter account to your Linkee account.

Step 2: Link your Twitter account

You can link your Twitter account to your Linkee account by going to the "My Account" page, and clicking on "Add Twitter Account". This will bounce you to Twitter so that you can authenticate there.  Linkee uses OAuth, the Twitter preferred method of authentication and linking, because your password is never stored on our server, only a secure token. 

If you change your account information on Twitter, your token is revoked, and you'll need to re-link your account next time you want to post using Linkee. Once you enter your username and password, you'll be brought back to Linkee, with the ability to post to Twitter.

You can link as many accounts as you'd like, set a default to post from, and switch between them easily.

Step 3: Copy the Bookmarklet Code to your Bookmarks Bar

On the "Tools" Page, there are several bits of code for the bookmarklets for various browsers.  For Firefox and Safari, you can simply drag and drop the button onto your bookmarks bar.  You'll need to right-click to add it to Internet Explorer.

After it is there, all you have to do is click on the button to shorten that page's URL using Linkee.  Clicking it will bring you over to Linkee, and if you've chosen to stay logged in all the time, or are currently logged in, it will place you on the Shorten page immediately, with the link text copied into the Twitter posting box.  Add in any additional text you'd like to include (up to the standard 140 character limit, of course), hit post to Twitter, and you're done.  2 Clicks to Short Linking Goodness!

There are several benefits to using the service in this fashion, most notably is the click tracking.  Most of the current Twitter apps do not support linking of the API key, so any links you shorten using other services aren't tracked, even if the service offers tracking.  This, of course, may change over time, and some applications (like CoTweet) do support it for some of the shortening services.

As always, we're interested in your feedback.  While this is how we intended the site to be used, there's certainly other ways, and we'd love to hear how you prefer to use the service.  Twitter is the easiest place to get in touch - just follow @linkee.

Happy Shortening!

Feeling like George Jetson today...

"that Mr Spacely made me push the button 3 times today!"

Actually I do not release any of these - thanks goes to Sean

New in release R15

• Fixed IE6 mixed content issues with the IE 6 'no more' notice.
  Never as easy as it looks, SSL wasn't very happy, all better now

New in release R14

• Added IE6 Notice
  In the prior post Rob talked about 1500 visitors from China, hitting linkee in the
  last week 58% of them are using IE6, so we added the IE 6 No More campaign js code to linkee.

New in release R13

• Copy-to-clipboard for My Links.
  It's a Flash SWF to copy to the clip board, if you have a lot of linkees otmight take slightly longer to load the page

• Automatically translate other short-links (from bit.ly, for example) to linkee,
  53 URL shorten services added. More to follow.The main reason we did this was because it seemed silly to short link a shortlink. The user does not see anything special happen,.linkee just takes care of it. Once you linkee to a shortlink from any supported service you will see the full URL in your Mylinks edit view.

• Added email when a serious error occurs.
  This is so when the service goes down for any reason I can get an email, so I can come back to the office.

• Swapped out Shorten panel graphic.
  Marketing

• Added features benefits bullets to Sign-In and Sign-Up pages.
  Marketing

• Updated "shorten" panel copy.
  Marketing

• Links you created before sign-in are now display on the initial screen refresh of the My Links page after sign-in.
  A message would say the linkee was added, but it wasn't actually in the list until you hit refresh - links appear the same time as the message now.

• Fixed Remember Me (Persistent Sign-in) was not working on public pages (i.e., home page).
  This was rolled out in R12, but it did not work correctly in all browsers, kind of like the buttons at crosswalks, you push them and feel better but nothing really happens. Remember me works now.

• Added custom log messages for Link create, Link destroy, Account create & Account destroy.
  Sean what's this for again?

Comments and feedback welcomed

So we had a spike in traffic this week from China for some reason.  What’s strangest about this is that the link all of these people are going to doesn’t exist (/neo).

We’ve been unable to find any web or social media references to this link, so the general consensus is that it was email-distributed.  Anyone have any ideas on this? Or any of you folks from China want to fill us in on what’s happening?  It’s very unfortunate so many of you are trying to find something that doesn’t exist (here, at least...)

Hopefully this is helpful to you, honestly not sure if I read this or just experiemented and it worked.
If I found the post where I read this trick I will definitely credit them add the link in the future.

Tip: when tweeting use www. instead of http:// saves 3 characters

Not sure why the shortening services have not picked this trick up yet.
Linkee is not automatically doing this either.

Its possible that a www. link does not work in a client's like Tweetdeck or Tweetie
If you try it out in those clients and it works - please comment here.

We just keep track of how many times we push a new release of linkee so this is number 12. Does it make sense to have versions for a web based application? Since each time you post it always the latest version. - its late just stating the obvious I guess...

New in this release