How to password protect and hide URLs or links

Posted on September 26, 2007 at 8:56 am

Aren’t there times when you want to send a family member or friend a link to something funny, but you’re at the office and you’re not sure whether your company might be able to monitor your emails and so you end up not sending it? Well, thankfully, there actually is a way to send someone a link via email that can only be accessed by entering a password that you specify.

Using HideLinks, you can easily type in any URL address and a password for the link and HideLinks will automatically create a new garbled URL that you can then send to anyone without having to worry about anyone being able to see what it is.

The person who receives your email will have to type in the same password in order to view the web site. Of course, it would be best to call the person and tell them the password or to send the password in a separate email! You can also use HideLinks to shorten a long URL or to password protect your bookmarks.

I personally find the secondary feature of the site more useful, protecting and hiding your bookmarks! So if you’re using a computer with your children, for example, and you want easy access to a few links, but you don’t want them to be able to access them, just type in the URL with a password and click on Bookmark it!.

Another web site that you can use and that has been around for a lot longer is SnipURL. They also have a few more features that I liked, especially the ability to give your URL a nickname and the ability to save all of your "snippets" for later access. You can add a private key to your web address to prevent others from viewing it and you can also shorten a long URL using SnipURL.