def shorten(self,longURL):
        """ 
            Takes either:
            A long URL string and returns shortened URL string
            Or a list of long URL strings and returns a list of shortened URL strings.
        """
        if not isinstance(longURL, list):
            longURL = [longURL]
        
        for index,url in enumerate(longURL):
            if not '://' in url:
                longURL[index] = "http://" + url
            
        request = self._getURL("shorten",longURL)
        result = self._fetchUrl(request)
        json = simplejson.loads(result)
        self._CheckForError(json)
        
        res = []
        for item in json['results'].values():
            if item['shortKeywordUrl'] == "":
                res.append(item['shortUrl'])
            else:
                res.append(item['shortKeywordUrl'])
        
        if len(res) == 1:
            return res[0]
        else:
            return res
 
            Takes either:
            A long URL string and returns shortened URL string
            Or a list of long URL strings and returns a list of shortened URL strings.
        
twitter/bitly.py