What is the purpose of shortening URL service?
Are shortening URL service related only to the fact that a single Twitter message has a small characters limits? Or does they have other uses?
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Sign up to join this communityWhat is the purpose of shortening URL service?
Are shortening URL service related only to the fact that a single Twitter message has a small characters limits? Or does they have other uses?
(well, tracking the URLs is a side effect, but) mainly: make URLs shorter.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=de&geocode=&q=Mountain%2BView%2C%2BKalifornien%2C%2BUSA&sll=52.130956%2C11.636701&sspn=0.342681%2C0.699692&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Mountain%2BView%2C%2BSanta%2BClara%2BCounty%2C%2BKalifornien&t=h&z=13
to
you could memorize the latter one, even tell it via phone.
URLs can be really long, and long URLs can break when passed around through email, social networks, etc. So URL shorteners can help by:
Many URL shorteners have added a feature to track clicks on that URL -- and aggregate information about those clicks. (Time of day, geography, a source of the click, etc.) For publishers that's a huge benefit -- URL shorteners can not only prevent breakage when URLs are passed around, but they can learn more about traffic to their site.
People started using URL shortening services long before Twitter existed. I think TinyURL was around in 1999. However, Twitter has made these services much more popular.
Some URLs are extremely long. 200+ characters. For these, I see the use of URL shortening services. If you're writing an email, and want to stick to the old standard of 80 characters wide, then URL shortening services can be useful.
But overall, yes I think you touch on a point. URL shortening services aren't always useful and can actually be harmful. If someone posts a TinyURL on Slashdot, it's almost guaranteed to point to something gross.
When sending a plain text email you are limited to less than 78 characters a line so if a URL is longer than 78 characters I would break. This also causes an issue when copying an pasting the URL in the address book because it contains a new line.
You could wrap the URL in < and > which is in the mail message RFC 5322.
One of the best uses of URL shortener is for making web content easier to access when the link is displayed on a screen or given verbally. I have used them many times at my job when I need to direct a user to a URL over the phone and they had issues typing it in.
When giving a presentation you can use Short URLs to make it easier for people to write down the link or type it into their browser. For example, there was a presentation about Google Chrome Extensions that used short URLs to link to the full slide deck (j.mp/crx201) and to additional resources that people might want to read up on.