Click the “copy to clipboard” button and you are ready to share your link with the world.  That is it.  No fancy features, no unwanted fuss.  You can pick up the Foxy URL add-on for Firefox at the Firefox Add-ons site or via their own web site at FoxyURL.com.

Shorten URL, an extension for Firefox will do this for you.  From the context menu, you can quickly shorten any link or web page’s URL into one that is easier to share.  Once installed, you can launch the link shortener in a number of different ways.  Right-clicking any link will give you the “Shorten this link URL” in the context menu.  Also right-clicking on any page will do the same.  You can even even launch the link shortener for a specific frame too.

Here are some of the other Shorten URL features:

• Automatically copy to clipboard (disabled by default)
• Automatically post to Twitter (disabled by default)
• Supports 35 URL shortening services

To learn more or to install, be sure to check out their Google code profile or their page on the Firefox Add-ons site.  It has become my new favorite way to shrink a link.

As a companion extension to Greasemonkey, Greasefire automatically find Greasemonkey scripts on Userscripts.org for the URL you are looking for.  When you are browsing a web site that does have user scripts available, Greasefire will light up the Greasemonkey icon in the status bar.  Then, right-click the Greasemonkey icon and choose the “X scripts available” item to see and install the scripts available for the current page.

So, if this is always looking for user scripts, isn’t that going to slow down your browsing?  Not exactly.  Greasefire works with a local level index to search for scripts that apply to the page you are on.  The local index updates periodically, so you shouldn’t be too out of the loop when doing lookups either.

You can pick up Greasefire on the Firefox Add-ons site.

User Script Trouble? Be sure to check out the Beginner’s Guide to Greasemonkey!

There are eight add-ons for Firefox that do this job very well.  The only problem is that there is not that much difference between them.

• Text Link
• Right-Click-Link
• Plain Text Links
• Direct Link
• Plain Text to Link
• CoLT
• URL Link
• Text2Link

Know of a number nine I might have missed?  I wouldn’t be surprised.  This seems like a very popular idea to do for a Firefox extension for some reason.  Since today is my birthday, just consider these eight gems your present from me.

What makes this service even cooler, is they have a Firefox extension to help you speed up the link generating process.   Using the Quick Paste add-on, you can highlight text then grab your URL.  Not much rocket science behind it.

Here is a little more about the Firefox extension from the developer:

Have you ever wanted to send a article or long conversation over IM or post to twitter, only to have it be over the limit on size? What about a cool way to share data without the fuss? Thats what TinyPaste is! Its like TinyURL but for text!

You can pick up the extension on Firefox’s Add-ons web site and learn more about the service behind the handy tool at TinyPaste.com.

Here is a little more about the Shrinkify extension from the developers:

The Shinkify Firefox extension makes long, unwieldy URLs shorter with the Shrinkify.com web service. Using either a toolbar button, right-click menu item, or tools menu item, you can submit your current url to the Shrinkify web service. The shrinkified URL will then be copied into your clipboard.

Also might be worth noting that the Shrinkify extension came in 8th in this year’s extend Firefox competition.  So if you are looking for a simple way to shrink your URLs built right into the browser, Shrinkify is your best solution.

• Decodes URLs for better readability
• Hides featureless parts of URLs
• Reduces the spoofing risks of URLs

+ Learn More About and Install the Locationbar 2 Extension for Firefox!

+ Learn More About and Download Tab URL Copier!

Allows you to navigate to parent directories in a URL and climb through subdomains (e.g. go to http://example.com/ from http://sub.example.com/), all from a context menu on the Go button (and on the toolbar button provided by Go Up, if you have that extension installed).

+ Download and Install Digger!

[Learn More About Paste and Go 2!]