diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 50a4e72..afd64e4 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ Feed2twister is a simple script to post items from RSS/ATOM feeds to [Twister](h
 * [Twister](http://twister.net.co/) (of course)
 * [python-bitcoinrpc](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-bitcoinrpc/)
 * [feedparser](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/feedparser/)
+* [gdshortener](https://github.com/torre76/gd_shortener/) (optional)
 
 ### Installing
 
diff --git a/conf-example.py b/conf-example.py
index 90ef61e..4f8f9bd 100644
--- a/conf-example.py
+++ b/conf-example.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ RPC_URL = 'http://MYRPCUSER:MYRPCPASSWORD@127.0.0.1:28332' # change to rpcuser a
 DB_FILENAME = 'items.db' # db is mainly there to keep track of "what not to post again" :) (debugging too, I guess)
 MAX_URL_LENGTH = 100 # this leaves 36 characters and a ... to get to 140. If we don't have that, we skip the item :(
 MAX_NEW_ITEMS_PER_FEED = 3 # we don't want to flood more than that in a single run.
+USE_SHORTENER=True
 FEEDS = [ # Use your own feeds, of course :)
     'https://swatwt.com/favs/rss/en',
     'https://github.com/thedod.atom'
diff --git a/feed2twister.py b/feed2twister.py
index 4ee8430..651b48a 100644
--- a/feed2twister.py
+++ b/feed2twister.py
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@ from conf import *
 import feedparser,anydbm,sys
 from bitcoinrpc.authproxy import AuthServiceProxy
 
+if USE_SHORTENER:
+    import gdshortener
+
 ### truncated_utf8() is based on http://stackoverflow.com/a/13738452
 def _is_utf8_lead_byte(b):
     '''A UTF-8 intermediate byte starts with the bits 10xxxxxx.'''
@@ -26,6 +29,8 @@ def get_next_k(twister,username):
 
 def main(max_items):
     db = anydbm.open(DB_FILENAME,'c')
+    if USE_SHORTENER:
+        s = gdshortener.ISGDShortener()
     twister = AuthServiceProxy(RPC_URL)
     for feed_url in FEEDS:
         logging.info(feed_url)
@@ -36,8 +41,11 @@ def main(max_items):
             if db.has_key(eid): # been there, done that (or not - for a reason)
                 logging.debug('Skipping duplicate {0}'.format(eid))
             else: # format as a <=140 character string
-                if len(e.link)<=MAX_URL_LENGTH:
-                    msg = u'{0} {1}'.format(e.link,e.title)
+                # Construct the link, possibly with shortener
+                entry_url = s.shorten(e.link)[0] if USE_SHORTENER else e.link
+
+                if len(entry_url)<=MAX_URL_LENGTH:
+                    msg = u'{0} {1}'.format(entry_url,e.title)
                     if len(msg)>140: # Truncate (and hope it's still meaningful)
                         msg = msg[:137]+u'...'
                 else: # Link too long. Not enough space left for text :(