shorten url

    /*
    - Shorten URL (tinyurl)
    - Sends a request to tinyurl's API via cURL to shorten the specified URL
    - Returns the resulting short URL

    $link     - The http URL to shorten
    $timeout  - How many seconds to wait before giving up
    */

    public function tinyUrl($link, $timeout = 5) {
        $ch = curl_init();

        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=" . $link);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);

        $data = curl_exec($ch);
        curl_close($ch);

        return $data;
    }