  For every finite-to-one map $\lambda:\Gamma\to\Gamma$ and for every abelian
group $K$, the generalized shift $\sigma_\lambda$ of the direct sum
$\bigoplus_\Gamma K$ is the endomorphism defined by
$(x_i)_{i\in\Gamma}\mapsto(x_{\lambda(i)})_{i\in\Gamma}$. In this paper we
analyze and compute the algebraic entropy of a generalized shift, which turns
out to depend on the cardinality of $K$, but mainly on the function $\lambda$.
We give many examples showing that the generalized shifts provide a very useful
universal tool for producing counter-examples.
