

Twi.bz: the transparent URL shortener - jgrahamc
http://twi.bz/

======
mbreese
You might end up having some trademark issues. For example, I could see Amazon
not being too happy with the example link <http://amazon.twi.bz/a>.

The other thing that I see is that for a URL shortener, the above is 22
characters. What about if you were linking to a page here. For example, a link
to this page is <http://ycombinator.twi.bz/b>. That's 27 characters.

If you are going to use a URL shortener (not that I'm suggesting that it is a
good idea), why use one that is so verbose (relatively speaking)?

So, I'm not sure that there is a sweet spot here. You have people on one side
that will never _ever_ use a URL shortener. On the other side, you have people
that want the smallest link possible. There isn't much space in the middle
(IMHO).

~~~
arghnoname
Not every usage for url shorteners is for twitter. I personally don't use
twitter, but when I send long links to my mother via e-mail, she has trouble
unless I use a url shrinking service. I'd much prefer one that shows the
domain outside of extremely space constricted environments.

~~~
jonknee
If your mom has trouble opening large links, she's probably not the type to be
comforted by a subdomain. If the link is from her son she's going to click it.

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decode
A similar service is DecentURL. It generally has slightly longer URLs, but
lets you put your own descriptive string in the link, in addition to adding
the target's domain as the link's subdomain.

<http://decenturl.com/>

~~~
pclark
thats a remarkable service. They take this ugly url:
<http://youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ> [38 characters] and turn it into this
pretty url: <http://youtube.decenturl.com/medieval-help-desk> [47 characters]

their "pretty" url is _much_ longer than the original one. What the hell!?

~~~
TweedHeads
Hmm, now I wonder why YouTube doesn't offer 'prettyfied' urls so we don't have
to click links like:

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=never-gonna-give-you-up>

~~~
Xichekolas
Not to be totally facetious, but if they did it'd be much harder to Rick Roll
someone.

~~~
paul7986
Do ppl still enjoy a good RickRoll?

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XffuAFl18_k> \- watch out :)

.

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ryanv
Are URL shorteners the new "hello world" app?

~~~
pclark
(when was the last time a hello world app got $2M in VC funding?)

~~~
barredo
In the 90's dotcom bubble? :-)

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pclark
I'd probably advertise yourself as: Twi.bz: the URL shortener that's
transparent.

~~~
boredguy8
"Twi.bz: the transparent URL shrinker" (or shortener, if you're tied to that
name) or

"Twi.bz: transparent and short URLs"

~~~
Xichekolas
Or:

"Twi.bz: Short, Transparent URLs"

~~~
pieter
Or just direct them to <http://twi.bz.twi.bz/a>

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c3o
A problem with using the original domain as a subdomain might be that for
people not familiar with your service, these URLs look more like a phishing
scam than a shortened URL, quite the opposite of the intended effect
("transparency"): Would you like to go to
"[http://paypal.twi.bz/c"](http://paypal.twi.bz/c)?

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mustpax
This is a cool idea. The host name in the URL goes a long way.

But there's still some trickery that could be used with redirection, e.g. "I'm
Feeling Lucky" Google URLs and the like.

Also most malicious URLs will include the payload in the request parameters.
You can still do a lot of damage with a GET request. (Ask Goolge bot if you
don't believe me <http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/746> )

What I'm trying to say is, there's no substitute for seeing a full URL.
Especially for security conscious users like the HN crowd. For the average
user though this might be enough information.

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paul_houle
How come people aren't looking at this from the other angle: a twitter client
could pre-preemptively look up URLs from url shortening services and annotate
the tweets with the full URLs?

For that matter, how about a twitter client with a memory? One that keeps
dossiers on the people you follow?

How about a twitter client that isn't written in AIR?

~~~
enneff
PeopleBrowsr does this and is an in-browser JavaScript app.
<http://www.peoplebrowsr.com/>

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marcusbooster
It seems to me that url transparency is an issue for the clients to solve. Why
can't Twitter (or whatever you're using) decode the short url and supply a
javascript pop-up or something to tell you where its going?

~~~
axod
Agreed. It's not rocket science to follow any short urls and provide the full
url in the title attribute.

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mjr578
What about removing all vowels except the first one? That way it is still
shorter but transparent.

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trickjarrett
I like that you include non .com suffixes but it does add length to the url.
However it seems to me that some people may think you're trying to be
malicious by using the domain.suffix as some spammers do. I'd suggest you do a
replace on the . with a - or some other character.

I'm also keen to get an api or a bookmarklet :)

~~~
pieter
Yes, a bookmarklet on the main site would be very appreciated

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pclark
quite a nasty bug if I try and shorten "omgponi.es" it says:

Sorry, twi.bz only understands http and https web addresses

I'd either make <http://> be in the text field by default, or append <http://>
when a user enters a url.

~~~
jgrahamc
I'll fix that.

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Jem
Just being picky, but you say on page that

"Instantly you know you'll be taken to Amazon.com and that the link is safe to
click on."

but further down, you say:

"twi.bz doesn't warrant that a link is safe"

Otherwise, I'm glad you implemented this idea. It's nifty :)

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lucumo
I tried it on my start-ups domain. The result is interesting :)

"The web address you entered was <http://rockingrackets.com/>.

This has been converted to <http://rockingrackets.twi.bz/a> You can copy and
paste it from here.

Your original web address had 26 characters, and the converted version has 30
characters."

I can see how this will always happen with the document root of any domain, so
maybe you can refuse to shorten those, or make it a kind of in-your-face
suggestion that it's silly to shorten a relatively short URL?

~~~
jgrahamc
And didn't it also say: "Since the original web address is, in this case,
shorter than the twi.bz version it's better to use the original. "?

~~~
Xichekolas
If the original is shorter, just return the original. You can make a note as
to why you gave back the original, but I think we can safely assume the user
wants the shortest he can get, so give it to him.

~~~
ensignavenger
But if they add URL click tracking, you still might want the new URL, even if
it is longer.

------
blackguardx
Your site gives me an error when I try to shorten "www.google.com"

It says that it wants an <http://> in front.

You should probably fix that.

------
asimjalis
I found a bug. If I try to convert this URL:

[http://www.areallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally...](http://www.areallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallylongurl.com/)

I get

<http://.twi.bz/d>

which doesn't redirect to the longer URL.

~~~
jgrahamc
I agree. That is a bug, it's because your domain name is invalid. It should
have told you that.

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barredo
If i'm shortening this URL: amazon.com/permalink and amazon.ca/permalink i
will get both times and url with: "amazon.twi.bz"

Wouldn't be better if you allow to put the TLD/ccTLD at first?
amazonca.twi.bz/x OR amazoncom.twi.bz/x

We get transparency at the cost of a slightly longer URL. I think it's ok. And
will recommend your domain to friends.

Thanks for the work

~~~
jgrahamc
1\. <http://amazon.com/permalink> converts to <http://amazon.twi.bz/f>

2\. <http://amazon.ca/permalink> converts to <http://amazon.ca.twi.bz/a>

Note that for non-.coms the TLD is preserved.

~~~
barredo
That's a better implementation and idea :-) Congrats

------
ssn
Do you consider releasing the URL mapping database? That would make sense in
the context of transparency.

~~~
jgrahamc
You mean the mapping between twi.bz URLs and the real URLs? Yes, I absolutely
plan to release the data. I'm just working on what the best way is, and I
wanted to get some feedback.

It's worth knowing that I hacked this together in a two hour session very,
very late last night. This is its public debut.

I want to be able to release the mapping and also the trending information.

What format would people prefer?

~~~
pclark
Always wondered - what value is this database? short of editing the /etc/hosts
or browser plugin to redirect from $nowDeadURL/dh36 to $newURL/dh36.

Do people have urls so valuable _locked_ in a tiny url service that'll be lost
forever if the service dies? serious question.

~~~
soult
Imagine you search for a solution to a very annoying bug in your favorite
program. Now imagine you find someone posting on a mailing list with a link to
the solution/a patch/something that solves your problem. Imaginary problem
solved.

Now imagine the same, except that the link is a tinyurl link and tinyurl went
out of business 2 days ago. You will never be able to solve your problem.

If there were some kind of tinyurlarchive.org, you could solve your problem
again.

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seren6ipity
I would suggest moving the "shorten" button to left. It is kind of obscured on
the extreme right.

------
robspychala
Nice! Great idea. You should look into implementing:
<http://sites.google.com/a/snaplog.com/wiki/short_url>

cheers,

r.S.

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barredo
Idea. If you return the 'www.' instead of '<http://'> at the beginning, you
save 3 chars, and I think most of the Twitter clients and Twitter web create a
link too.

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Frocer
What happens when you have twi.bz point to tinyurl, and tinyurl point to
bit.ly, and bit.ly point back to the original twi.bz link? :P

Can I create a URL shortener infinite loop?

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Keyframe
[http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainname...](http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.twi.bz/b)

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asimjalis
Good job on releasing it so quickly.

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joshu

        Your original web address had 28 characters, and the converted version has 29 characters. 
    

Congrats. I guess I need to update my rant.

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alexk
is there any firefox plugin that "unshortens" these urls on hover?

~~~
thorax
bit.ly's Firefox extension works for a good number of them:
<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10297>

~~~
alexk
great,thanks!

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paraschopra
I was thinking today this exactly!

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c00p3r
That is url-encoder istead of shortener. The goal should be in saving space
for meaningful text.

------
teej
I appreciate the hackery and speed with which you implemented this idea born
out of HN. That being said, I really, really don't care about another URL
shortener.

