google_shortener_improved.py

#!/usr/local/bin/python2.6

# Original Post http://segfault.in/2010/10/shorten-urls-using-google-and-python/

from urllib2 import urlopen, Request, HTTPError
from urllib import urlencode
from simplejson import loads
import sys
import re

def shorten_url(url):
    """
      url: URL to be shortened
      return shortened url
    """
    #if not url.startswith("ftp://") and not url.startswith("https://") and not url.startswith("http://"):
    if not re.match('^(http|https|ftp):\/\/',url):
        # Assume http prefix
        url = "http://" + url



    try:
        request = Request(url="http://goo.gl/api/url")
        request.add_header('User-Agent',"Google URL Shortner")
        request.add_data(urlencode({'url': url}))
        response = urlopen(request)
        return loads(response.read())['short_url']
    except HTTPError, e:
        return loads(e.read())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    if len(sys.argv) == 1:
        print "Usage: python g_improved.py <url>"
    else:
        print shorten_url(sys.argv[1])