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up vote 10 down vote favorite

So I was wondering if there was any URL shortening service that would allow (optional) parameters? So for example it would be something like this:

goo.gl/mv2j?state=NC

Which would translate into:

http://myphptest.webatu.com/search.php?state=NC

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1  
Just a cool thing that goo.gl offers is that you can get a QR code for that by simply adding .qr at the end.. http://goo.gl/mv2j.qr – Lipis Aug 22 '10 at 14:15
@Lipis: Yeah I remember reading about that on Lifehacker – Lucas McCoy Aug 22 '10 at 15:05

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

We just released a beta version our our URL shortener with parameters support. Please check it out @ http://para.ms

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That's perfect. I would recommend maybe adding a GUIish way of entering params when generating those url's. #1# isn't exactly the easiest thing to remember. – Lucas McCoy Mar 27 '11 at 3:16
I need to specify two parameters. Is it possible with para.ms? – tic Oct 15 '11 at 7:31
Your service does not work for my case (a parameter with special characters). How can I report it? No contact email address on the home (and only one) page. – tic Oct 15 '11 at 7:42
up vote 0 down vote

I do not think there is. You would need to use thier API interface and create a new short URL for each setting. You can however creeate custom shorts!

if you use Bit.Ly you can create:

bit.ly/[Custom]StateNY

This would allow you to know where it was going from the URL, and have the extra short URL's

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up vote 8 down vote

There's no technical reason why this isn't possible, although I'm not aware of any shortener service which support it currently.

I suspect the main reasons that this feature hasn't been widely implemented is due to a couple of potentially sticky implementation details. One implementation issue that would need to be considered is how the parameters are handled when the source url already has parameters, e.g.

Original url: http://myphptest.webatu.com/search.php?type=geo

Shortened to goo.gl/mv2j

Should goo.gl/mv2j?state=NC go to

(A) http://myphptest.webatu.com/search.php?type=geo?state=NC

or (B) http://myphptest.webatu.com/search.php?type=geo&state=NC?

(A) isn't really an option as this url format will likely result in unexpected behaviour due to the double "?".

So the shortener service would need to change it's workflow from:

  • Get url request (mv2j)
  • Look up mv2j in the database and get source link (http://myphptest.webatu.com/search.php?type=geo)
  • Redirect user to http://myphptest.webatu.com/search.php?type=geo

to:

  • Get url request (mv2j)
  • Look up mv2j in the database and get source link (http://myphptest.webatu.com/search.php?type=geo)
  • Check whether user has given parameters after mv2j
  • If parameters are present, check whether target url has parameters
  • If target url has parameters, send user to http://myphpt.....php?type=geo&state=NC
  • Otherwise, send user to http://myphpt.....php?state=NC

So basically, yes, it is possible, but those which don't support it yet have likely not done so due to the increase of complexity it would require to implement with consistent results.

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Thanks. I figured one didn't exist. Sounds like a fun project though! – Lucas McCoy Aug 23 '10 at 6:54

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