ChromeMUSE is a fantastic URL shortening and lengthening plugin for Google’s Chrome browser. It has a variety of options, but is simple and doesn’t clutter up your browser like some plugins can.

The essense of URL shortening is based in need for space. Twitter was the first web service that totally embraced the idea that less could be more, and URL shorteners like bit.ly and is.gd sprung up to provide users with links which were tiny, and so could fit into their 140 character limit.

After installing ChromeMUSE you have a little link icon in your broswer. After this point, whenever you click on it it will create a short URL for the webpage that you are looking at at that moment.

There are a few settings that you can play around with, including changing the service which provides your short links. This is useful for those people who live places where some of these services are blocked (Bit.ly is blocked in China, for example).

You can also turn on URL lengthening, which means that when you mouse over any link which is shortened using on of the installed services (and all the major players are there) it will show you the long address in a tooltip. Very handy.

Overall, this is an excellent plugin for Chrome for those who use social networking to any degree. It’s clean, simple, intuitive and it – just works. Download from the developer’s site below:

ChromeMUSE Chrome extension

Direct Download – http://sites.google.com/site/nighthoundchrome/chromemuse/chromemuse-1.0.crx?attredirects=0 [File mirror]

Homepage – http://sites.google.com/site/nighthoundchrome/chromemuse