I was adding a link to a Google map into my iCal and noticed Google is encouraging me to share the the map URLs in email and IM. But there’s a problem with the Google Maps URLs. They’re +/- 155 characters. Here’s the full URL: http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=the+red+pepper,+plymouth,+mn&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=1854680882426337660&li=lmd&z=14&iwloc=A This URL is neither short, nor easily memorable, nor …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
How To Cache Highly Dynamic Data in Rails with Memcache – Part 3
In part 1 and part 2, I laid out my initial approaches on caching and performance in Cullect. While both of them pointed in the right direction, I realized I was caching the wrong stuff in the wrong way. Since then, I tried replicating the database – one db for writes, one for reads. Unfortunately, …
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My Long Bet Against Mobile Carriers: Update 1
Late last year, I extended my T-Mobile contract 2 years. When I signed it, I had a hunch it will be the last time I’m locked into an agreement like that. Now, I’m confident – so confident that if I was holding any mobile carrier stock, I’d start shorting. A couple weeks back, we got …
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Short URLs Re-defining SEO
It’s conventional search engine optimization wisdom that URLs should contain words, separated by either dashes or underscores. This approach improves the readability of the URL – making it more usable for people while simultaneously giving internet robots something to work on. But with people sharing URLs within places – like Twitter and Facebook (and … …
Unspoken, Unfortunate, Synonyms
From what I can tell; “SEO” is an unspoken synonym for “works better in Google” “Social Media” is an unspoken synonym for “works better in Twitter” Both of these are unfortunate for they: turn something easily understandable into something vague and amorphous – the exact opposite of good framing mask the monopoly those companies have …
Dog-Eared
Some quick reviews of the handful of books I savored during my recent trip in Mexico. The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let It Happen I found this month’s Economics book club selection (my first Kindle purchase) an extra-ordinarily frustrating read mainly due to the Fox News-esque partisanship. Despite …
WordPress URL Shortening Hack
My last post, Publishers Shorten Yourself, got me thinking about easy, low-tech ways to provide a short url for WordPress blogs. Turns out, just 1 line of code is needed in the .htaccess file. RewriteRule ^(d+)$ http://[YOUR-BLOG-URL]/?p=$1 Add it in just after RewriteBase so your .htaccess looks something like this: # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> …
Publishers Shorten Yourself
The Wege pointed me to an excellent article by Joshua Schachter on the issues w/ URL shortening services. It’s consistent my concerns and my Insecurity of Short URLs post. As I alluded to that post, I see 3 opportunities for URL shorteners, all of them revolve around increasing trust (branding, security, backup). Let’s take that …
The Long Promise of the Mobile Web
I distinctly remember back in 1999, working for one of the first User Experience firms, when I first saw an internet-based service on a mobile phone. Then, diversity meant some devices had 7 lines of text other had 3. A few months later, I moved onto a new gig where I was designing location-specific websites …
First Crack 119. Justin Grammens on Mobile VOIP
I have a hypothesis that mobile VOIP over WiFi will replace mobile carriers for the majority of phone conversations within 5 years. For a reality check, I called up Justin Grammens of Localtone Interactive and Mobile Twin Cities. From the picture he paints, I think we’ll see this well within 5 years. Maybe 2. Projects …
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