Every once in a while I come up with an idea for an app that while pretty much something that only I am the one who needs the util I like to throw the idea out there just incase some adventurous soul find the idea interesting enough to pursue. Such is the case with this idea that has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while.

What I would really like to see is a system tray app that would monitor the Clipboard for copied URLs and then allow you to shorten that URL from the list of many different options to have it automatically shortened and then either posted at the current caret position and/or have the shortened URL copied to the clipboard.

One important thing to include would be the ability to – in the case of bit.ly – add your login info for any of the supplied URL shortening services. This way that shortened URL would be entered in to the URL shortening service with your credentials thereby keeping the stats trackable. Additionally – but as a future addition to the utility would be the ability to generate any possible stats reports locally.

Now I realize that there are add-ons for things like this for Firefox but A) not everyone runs Firefox and B) this would also make adding shortened URLs a option for programs that typically wouldn’t be thought of as being a territory for this kind of feature – i.e.: Notes for Google Reader shared items etc.

Anyway it’s an idea but if someone does decide to give it a try please give me a holler and let me help out by testing it for you.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging.