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[OT] Tiny URLs

James Britt

3/10/2005 6:11:00 AM

Informal poll: Are there others as leery as I am of tinyurl and similar
URL-shortener sites? While I can understand the value, I don't
particularly care to have to click through one site to get to another,
and would much prefer to see the complete, direct URL.


I've noticed a few people here post links that went through tinyurl.com,
and don't bother following them. My loss, perhaps, but I prefer
lengthy-but-transparent URLs.

(Unless, of course, the redirection site were to be written in Ruby and
run by people I know.)


James
42 Answers

Joao Pedrosa

3/10/2005 6:20:00 AM

0

Hi,

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:10:34 +0900, James Britt
<jamesUNDERBARb@neurogami.com> wrote:
> Informal poll: Are there others as leery as I am of tinyurl and similar
> URL-shortener sites? While I can understand the value, I don't
> particularly care to have to click through one site to get to another,
> and would much prefer to see the complete, direct URL.
>
> I've noticed a few people here post links that went through tinyurl.com,
> and don't bother following them. My loss, perhaps, but I prefer
> lengthy-but-transparent URLs.
>
> (Unless, of course, the redirection site were to be written in Ruby and
> run by people I know.)

It's better to fit in a fixed size area, mainly because URLs don't
have spaces where they could be wrapped.

Your security concern is valid to me, too.

Cheers,
Joao

Neil Stevens

3/10/2005 6:22:00 AM

0

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:10:34 +0900, James Britt wrote:

> Informal poll: Are there others as leery as I am of tinyurl and similar
> URL-shortener sites? While I can understand the value, I don't
> particularly care to have to click through one site to get to another,
> and would much prefer to see the complete, direct URL.

There's another issue. Once that service goes away, suddenly all the
information hidden in those urls is gone. People who use those damage the
value of the archives.

--
Neil Stevens - neil@hakubi.us

'A republic, if you can keep it.' -- Benjamin Franklin

gabriele renzi

3/10/2005 7:54:00 AM

0

James Britt ha scritto:

> (Unless, of course, the redirection site were to be written in Ruby and
> run by people I know.)

is'nt it http:/... ?
:)

Bil Kleb

3/10/2005 11:16:00 AM

0

James Britt wrote:
> Informal poll: Are there others as leery as I am of tinyurl and similar
> URL-shortener sites?

I (naively) choose to view the world in a positive manner (aka a
Jeffersonian view), and so far it's worked out.

I am, however, one of the 1.5M government credit card holders
for which Bank America lost the data tapes and so, my outlook may
change as my doppelgangers start competing with me.

Regards,
--
Bil Kleb
http://fun3d.lar...

Dick Davies

3/10/2005 11:54:00 AM

0

* Bil Kleb <Bil.Kleb@nasa.gov> [0316 11:16]:
> James Britt wrote:
> >Informal poll: Are there others as leery as I am of tinyurl and similar
> >URL-shortener sites?

> I (naively) choose to view the world in a positive manner (aka a
> Jeffersonian view), and so far it's worked out.

http://makeashort... does similar, but at least that says
'you are going to tubgirl.com' or whatever.

http://makeashort.../?W538214AA

I also like the output when I tried making a link to http://...:


"URL already short:

If we made you a shorter link it would be longer or about the same length,
so we're not going to bother."



--
'If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a
house of cards... Checkmate!'
-- Zapp. Brannigan
Rasputin :: Jack of All Trades - Master of Nuns

Thomas Kirchner

3/10/2005 12:58:00 PM

0

* On Mar 10 15:10, James Britt (ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org) wrote:
> Informal poll: Are there others as leery as I am of tinyurl and similar
> URL-shortener sites? While I can understand the value, I don't
> particularly care to have to click through one site to get to another,
> and would much prefer to see the complete, direct URL.

In general I agree, I'd much rather see where a link is taking me. The
exception is for some sites (Google Groups comes to mind) where the URLs
are literally 3+ lines to paste. They're as useless for clarity as they
are for length. (Plus tinyurl has been around a while and most people
trust them, though you can't necessarily trust its users.)
Tom

furufuru

3/10/2005 2:03:00 PM

0

Neil Stevens wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 15:10:34 +0900, James Britt wrote:
[...]
> There's another issue. Once that service goes away, suddenly all the
> information hidden in those urls is gone. People who use those
damage the
> value of the archives.

Therefore, we'd better limit ourselves to using such a service only for
short-lived information. For example, I think the following is a good
use of such a service:

. . . The restaurant is Joe's: http://tinyur... .
Here's a map http://tinyurl... for those of you who will
be driving. See you there at 6:00pm.

I find the URLs for those Internet maps are way too long.

My $0.02.
Ryo

Tom Copeland

3/10/2005 2:14:00 PM

0

On Thu, 2005-03-10 at 21:57 +0900, Thomas Kirchner wrote:
> * On Mar 10 15:10, James Britt (ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org) wrote:
> > Informal poll: Are there others as leery as I am of tinyurl and similar
> > URL-shortener sites? While I can understand the value, I don't
> > particularly care to have to click through one site to get to another,
> > and would much prefer to see the complete, direct URL.
>
> In general I agree, I'd much rather see where a link is taking me. The
> exception is for some sites (Google Groups comes to mind) where the URLs
> are literally 3+ lines to paste.

Yup, exactly, I usually would paste in the link, but those ViewCVS URLs
are a mile long...

Yours,

Tom

James Britt

3/10/2005 2:29:00 PM

0

Thomas Kirchner wrote:
...

>
> In general I agree, I'd much rather see where a link is taking me. The
> exception is for some sites (Google Groups comes to mind) where the URLs
> are literally 3+ lines to paste. They're as useless for clarity as they
> are for length. (Plus tinyurl has been around a while and most people
> trust them, though you can't necessarily trust its users.)

Interesting. On what basis do people trust them? I doubt this url

http://tinyur...

just came about by chance, and suggests a fairly juvenile (i.e.
unreliable) group of people are running tinyurl.com.


James

Thomas Kirchner

3/10/2005 2:40:00 PM

0

* On Mar 10 23:29, James Britt (ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org) wrote:
> Interesting. On what basis do people trust them? I doubt this url
>
> http://tinyur...
>
> just came about by chance, and suggests a fairly juvenile (i.e.
> unreliable) group of people are running tinyurl.com.

Hah... well, I had never heard of that happening before. Where did you
get that url? Personally, I have no problem with it... it's their site,
and they don't give out that url when you ask for a shortening, so you
know what you're in for if you follow it.
Tom