Category: URL Design

A Proposal for Shorter Google Maps URLs

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 […]

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 … […]

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 […]

Introducing: RE07.US – The Greenest URL Shortener

According to a recent post by FuelInteractive.com, a link in Twitter is clicked for 5 minutes, then completely ignored. That got me thinking about all the wasted short urls out there. So many tinyurl, culld.us, is.gd, et al, links just collecting dust after all that initial clicking. Seems so wasteful considering “the current economic climate”. […]