import urllib

def tiny(url):
    try:
        data = urllib.urlencode(dict(url=url, source="RSS2Twit"))
        encodedurl="http://www.tinyurl.com/api-create.php?"+data
        instream=urllib.urlopen(encodedurl)
        ret=instream.read()
        instream.close()

        if len(ret)==0:
            return url

        return ret

    except IOError, e:
      raise "urllib error."