URL shorteners

[+QuesterMark]

I just approved a WM that used tinyurls for the link fields.

 

Are tinyurls permanent? What about other shorteners?

 

Should I NOT approve waymarks with shortened URLs?

[+Team Microdot]

Pretty sure tinyurl's are permanent because they are not stored anywhere, instead each time the unique tinyurl is accessed, the tinyurl engine reverses the algorithm used compress the long url in the first place.

 

goo.gl on the other hand I'm not so sure about.

Edited May 7, 2013 by Team Microdot

[+Kalkendotters]

Pretty sure tinyurl's are permanent because they are not stored anywhere, instead each time the unique tinyurl is accessed, the tinyurl engine reverses the algorithm used compress the long url in the first place.

Youre wrong: TinuUrl's are also stored on the tinyurl server. It is not a zip-like compression, but just a lookup system.

Although they promise:

By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.

They could very well change their policy, or disappear entirly.

 

Short-Urls are great when you have to retype/copy urls, but they should not be used to link to urls if not necessary. The main disadvantages:

1) you have no way to see where the link is really going

2) shorting service may go offline/change policy

3) adds another lookup layer to link to the real URL, adding time to display the page

 

See also e.g.

http://rield.com/faq/why-url-shorteners-are-bad

http://blogoola.com/blog/microblogging-advantages-disadvantages-shortening-urls/

[+Team Microdot]

Pretty sure tinyurl's are permanent because they are not stored anywhere, instead each time the unique tinyurl is accessed, the tinyurl engine reverses the algorithm used compress the long url in the first place.

Youre wrong: TinuUrl's are also stored on the tinyurl server. It is not a zip-like compression, but just a lookup system.

 

 

I stand corrected

 

Looks like it is in fact a database of unique hashes for associated URL's!

 

I must have mis-remembered something along the line

 

Thanks for pointing that out

[+MountainWoods]

Pretty sure tinyurl's are permanent because they are not stored anywhere, instead each time the unique tinyurl is accessed, the tinyurl engine reverses the algorithm used compress the long url in the first place.

Youre wrong: TinuUrl's are also stored on the tinyurl server. It is not a zip-like compression, but just a lookup system.

Although they promise:

By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.

They could very well change their policy, or disappear entirly.

 

Short-Urls are great when you have to retype/copy urls, but they should not be used to link to urls if not necessary. The main disadvantages:

1) you have no way to see where the link is really going

2) shorting service may go offline/change policy

3) adds another lookup layer to link to the real URL, adding time to display the page

 

See also e.g.

http://rield.com/faq/why-url-shorteners-are-bad

http://blogoola.com/blog/microblogging-advantages-disadvantages-shortening-urls/

Just wanted to say that I agree completely with all 3 of those points.

 

I think that tinyurl came about when some old web logs or discussion forums or email systems did not allow codes where you could specify the url but have other text as the link, as in HTML's <a> tag, or discussion group's BB code {url=...}link text{/url} (but with square brackets where I typed curly ones). In those older systems (and perhaps email messages) it was important to shorten the URL so that it didn't wrap around.

 

In all other contexts one never needs tinyurl. In anything HTML-enabled, one would just use the <a> tag, and anything that uses BB codes would use the aforementioned. I could possibly see a use for it in email messages where a long URL might get wrapped somewhere along the way with an actual newline (not just visually wrapped), which would break the URL. Personally, I've never, ever had to use tinyurl or the like, and I've done my share of communicating long URLs to folks in emails, forums and you-name-it just like everyone else.

 

I may be wrong, but I've seen times where folks used tinyurl just because they thought the real URL "looked ugly". (Bah! Humbug!)

[GT.US]

My worry about the TinyURL is that it couple be linking to a virus. With the longURL at least I can see if it looks like a valid place when I mouseover it.

[+Team Microdot]

My worry about the TinyURL is that it couple be linking to a virus. With the longURL at least I can see if it looks like a valid place when I mouseover it.

 

In fairness, knowing the destination URL is no guarantee that the destination site will be malware free - even highly legit / high profile websites are frequently hacked and infected with malware.

 

Tinyurl does have the option to operate in a preview mode, which allows verification of the destination URL - simply include the word preview thus - http://preview.tinyurl.com/1rl8

 

You then have the option to click on the Proceed to this site link - or not.