Url shortener FAIL
These things are a toxic blight, nasty to use, worse to see, and are a nasty (un)planned obsolescence introduced ill-advisedly into the core of the internet.
Furthermore, can we all agree that bit.ly has powned twitter? How much should bit.ly charge twitter not to nuke all their links at this point? One billion dollars? Sounds cheap, especially since pretty much the only value in the place is those links.
140 chars seemed hip when sms seemed like a valid practical hurdle. It no longer is, and it is easy to imagine a better protocol. Shortened urls ought to be unlamented collateral damage. ¶ 10:46 PM
Sunday, August 9, 2009
I think I've gotten more shrill about shortened urls. Especially after reading that tr.im is closing.
These things are a toxic blight, nasty to use, worse to see, and are a nasty (un)planned obsolescence introduced ill-advisedly into the core of the internet.
Furthermore, can we all agree that bit.ly has powned twitter? How much should bit.ly charge twitter not to nuke all their links at this point? One billion dollars? Sounds cheap, especially since pretty much the only value in the place is those links.
140 chars seemed hip when sms seemed like a valid practical hurdle. It no longer is, and it is easy to imagine a better protocol. Shortened urls ought to be unlamented collateral damage. ¶ 10:46 PM
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I would seriously hope that Twitter has thought to dereference all the known short 301 redirect links into a hash table. If so, they can swap out any defunct short links dynamically when an old tweet is requested.
I think we can all agree that shortened links stink, though. As far as I see it, they are only good as a quick solution for nosy people who want to check the stats for how many times their link has been clicked.
If this is a feature people want, developing some voluntary feedback system would be a better way to go. "Yes, I did check that link you sent me, thanks."
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I think we can all agree that shortened links stink, though. As far as I see it, they are only good as a quick solution for nosy people who want to check the stats for how many times their link has been clicked.
If this is a feature people want, developing some voluntary feedback system would be a better way to go. "Yes, I did check that link you sent me, thanks."
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