

Long URL Please: URL "unshortener" extension for Firefox - idm
http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9549

======
benhoyt
I see he's using Ajax to call his API to unshorten the URL. This is fine, but
wouldn't it be faster (and less load on his server) if the JavaScript tried to
follow the link directly, and looked at the Location header in the response?
Or can't you do this using JavaScript?

~~~
idm
Personally, I'd rather _his_ server checked it out, rather than leaking my IP
all over the place, potentially making requests to untrusted servers.

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pyre
Why exactly does this need to be a full-on Firefox extension rather than a
GreaseMonkey script? As a GreaseMonkey script users can use it on multiple
browsers...

~~~
idm
Actually, there's a bookmarklet for non-firefox users. Check out the home page
for the project:

<http://www.longurlplease.com/>

Still, I think you're on to something; Greasemonkey might be the best of all
worlds.

~~~
redorb
I don't think greasemonkey is as easy for my grandmother as a plugin - yeah I
know my grandmother might not care about seeing the long url (or know what one
is) but the premise is the same FF plugins are easier than greasemonkey... for
the average user

~~~
blasdel
You have to restart Firefox to install / enable / disable extensions -- with
Greasemonkey you only have to do that once. You also don't have to deal with
addons.mozilla.org and their wanky policies.

------
idm
If you're bothered by HN commenters who use URL shortening services, then this
is the extension for you. Disclaimer: I didn't write this; I'm just sharing it
to ease the pain.

~~~
derefr
I believe those HN users are annoyed that their paragraphs are taken over by
200-character URL strings, when they should be at most parenthetical to the
discussion at hand--they are _references_ to further reading, after all. Why
does HN not allow titled links? If it's a matter of the possible syntax
interfering with normal discourse, Markdown's footnote-style "reference link"
specifications[1] are very unobtrusive and degrade gracefully (in fact, you're
seeing the degraded version of a [modified] one in this very post!)

[1] <http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#link>

~~~
mattyb
So you know, URIs in comments are displayed in truncated form like so:

[http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/release-
proce...](http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/release-
process/#internals-release-process)

~~~
derefr
Ooh, forgot about that. :) Still doesn't help with the URL text interrupting
the flow of prose, though. What's so wrong with having to hover over links to
find out where they go?

