Long URLs are a pain, which is my the many URL shortening services cropped up a few years back, but what if you want a short URL and you want to keep prying eyes out of your bookmarks? That's the scenario behind Hidelinks, a new service that offers a shortened URL and the option to lock it with a password.
The service is dead simple to use, just head to the site and paste in the URL you want shortened. Then enter a password and it hit the “Shorten Link” button. Hidelinks will spit out a shortened link which you can copy to the clipboard or bookmark in your browser.
When someone tries to access the URL using the link, they'll be asked for the password before they are permitted to see the page. For instance, here's a link to Compiler generated with Hidelinks (the password is “wired”).
If you have nosy co-workers or have to share computer access with other people, this is an effective way to hide your bookmarks from them.
The main drawback is that, if you're bookmarking these links in a browser, it's impossible to know what site they actually lead to, which makes for a confusing bookmarks folder. Of course most people probably don't have too many sites they want to hide, so maybe that isn't a problem.
Hidelinks also offers free accounts if you'd like to use the site as a bookmarking service.
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