Despite Twitter’s recent work to integrate media such as images and videos directly into its site, scanning tweets for interesting links is still not as easy as it could be thanks to the necessary use of shortened URLs in tweets. What’s behind that Bit.ly or Goo.gl link? Sometimes a clue would be nice. That’s exactly what TweeTool, a new extension for Chrome and Firefox, offers.
Install the extension and it displays a preview logo of the source of a link in a tweet right next to the text. So, a link to this article would be accompanied by a The Next Web logo, a BBC News article by a BBC logo.
In all, developer Woolik says that 20,000 website logos are supported. Additionally, YouTube videos are accompanied by their thumbnail, giving you an idea of what’s being shared, before you click through to view it.
Woolik is based in Israel and the six-person company formed last year. TweeTool is one of its first products. While it’s the kind of thing that could be implemented by Twitter overnight, removing the need for a third-party extension, it’s a useful little addition if you find yourself annoyed by a sea of short URLs on Twitter.com.
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.