

Shortest url shortener - Altfel
http://l.md/

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samarudge
Are URL shorteners still relevant? I think the only real usage for them was
Twitter, and since t.co all links take up 20 characters regardless of the
length of the original link (Even if it's shorter).

The other use would be advertising, but doing sensible on-domain links like
ourcompany.com/product are much better and easier to remember than
bit.ly/aZq14

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dools
I think it's tying for shortest - bit.ly will allow you to create j.mp URLs
via their API (not sure if you can do it without the API)

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Tichy
Although j.mp frequently doesn't work. Clicking the j.mp links often fails, at
least on my computer.

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laacz
Haven't seen SSI around much lately. Going to link <http://l.md/bfx+> outputs
this: <http://laacz.lv/f/img/ssi.png>

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keymone
[0-9a-z] - base 36 is far from _shortest_ shortener

縮.jp - this one uses utf8 characters and that means their urls won't break 6
characters length for a long long time

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ryanbraganza
it's no shorter than <http://tinyarro.ws> or plenty of others...

e.g. <http://➡.ws/1wz>

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nodata
Not going to work: is that an L (Lima), an I (India) or a 1 (one)?

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dools
Urr how often do you read out shortened URLs? The entire genesis of link
shortening is sending them in txt communications to be clicked on (emails
initially when tinyurl.com was invented and later bit.ly when twitter placed
even tighter constraints on character count).

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lokedhs
If you don't read/type them, what's the point of a URL shortener in the first
place? It's not harder to click on a long link than it is to click on a short
one.

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webreac
url shortener are bad: they are obfuscating the real link. I delete all the
mails containing shortened url. The only exception I can see is for twitter.

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delan
URL shorteners have a purpose, and while they may be misused, there is no
reason to say that they are just simply "bad".

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kamjam
Yes, exactly. I regularly use them for Google Maps for example, which
incidentally has an option right there on the interface now (I used to shorten
via bit.ly). Why? Because it is easier to send to someone when I need to send
them driving directions rather than some obscure 1000 character long URL. I
can also slip that URL into a conversation without breaking up my flow of
text. Also much easier when someone opens up their email on their phone or I
need to SMS it to someone.

I agree that if it was from someone I did not know then I would be more
reluctant to click the link. You shouldn't be clicking on links in spam
anyways...

You can see what the actual URL of a bit.ly link is by adding a + to the end
of the URL, e.g. <https://bitly.com/A4zgFf+>

Assume you can do something similar with the other services.

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Toshio
How do you get the entire text automatically selected afterwards? A code
snippet would be helpful.

