

Twitter URLs and Limitations - dejan
http://www.aleveo.com/ideas/twitter-urls-and-limitations

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archgrove
If I were writing a popular URL shortener, the most useful thing I could add
would be short (2 character) prefix to the random link, indicating the target
type (e.g. video is foo.bla/vd12345). This fixes a pet peeve of mine, when I
follow an Mobile Safari link to Youtube on an EDGE network, causing an
application shift. Also, 95% of videos on the web these days are better
rendered in text, and I just want to ignore them.

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msc
Interesting article. To solve the security issue he mentions, I started trying
out various twitter clients. I ended up using Nambu for Mac OS X. Mouse over a
link gives you the real URL, if it has one. Personally, the extra latency that
comes from using URL shortening services doesn't bother me, but the thought
that the service might disappear does.

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TweedHeads
I've said it a million times and I'll say it again:

Replace all urls with a "link" enclosed on an <A> tag

    
    
      <a href="realurl">LINK</a>
    

No need to reinvent the wheel, it's been there since the dawn of the web.

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dejan
exactly, just you have to keep in mind that you can't allow html posts, while
the links should also be able to have the names. I think RedCloth notation for
link will do "title":<http://link.com> if in need for a link name, but if not,
then definitively you need to shorten the links somehow.. You don't want the
whole screen of a cell phone covered in a single link?

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TweedHeads
The word LINK only takes 4 chars in every cellphone in the world. What's
underneath the link (the url) is only available to html readers.

And the users DO NOT submit link titles, they submit urls (which are not part
of the 140 limit, only 4 chars for 'link') and urls are recognized as such an
replaced by the word LINK.

* users still not allowed to post html.

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dejan
sure thing. but you have an issue with two links. See, you have to have a mean
of identifying links, and that is why there should be ability to either add
custom title or fetch real page title.

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TweedHeads
Not necessarily, take a look at both examples:

\- I saw an iphone clone at httq://tinyurl.com/blahblah here is the pic
httq://twitpic.com/blahblah compare it to this httq://tinyurl.com/moreblah

\- I saw an iphone clone at LINK here is the pic LINK compare it to this LINK

See? more room for cleaner, longer messages.

Cellphones get the LINK word, browsers get the clickable LINK

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patcito
but cellphones may get half of the message only, as it is limited to 140
chars.

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TweedHeads
No, the message is still limited to 140 chars, for cellphones or browsers, the
link handling is done behind doors.

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prodigal_erik
So where does the phone get the URL, another message?

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TweedHeads
Phones don't get the url, just the LINK placeholder, you can not navigate on a
cellphone.

Now, smartphones, they use browsers, browsers can read html, then they get the
url under the LINK placeholder.

