Posting Date: July 31, 2002

WebWord Comment -- Shit. I didn't realize how much I liked using the service. I really miss it. Am I willing to pay for it? You bet. A few weeks ago I made a donation. In fact, I am finding that I have been more and more willing to spend money on useful services and unique products.

Reader Comments...

There must be a freeware Perl URL redirection script that we could install on our own web sites.

I will publicly proclaim my adoration for the first person to use a search engine thingie to find such a script and report back.

Posted by: Jack on July 31, 2002 11:52 PM

John, there are other two free services as your beloved TinyURL. One is Urlizer (http://urlizer.com/) and the other is (http://makeashorterlink.com/). Jack, for the URL redirection script, here are some written in Perl:

http://www.hotscripts.com/Perl/Scripts_and_Programs/Redirection/Link_Based/

And here in PHP:

http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Redirection/Link_Based/

Hope this helps.

--
Antonio

Posted by: Antonio Cavedoni on August 1, 2002 04:26 AM

There are plenty of services of this type. Probably the best is:

http://snipurl.com/

Posted by: Jed on August 1, 2002 07:37 AM

You should probably use this kind of service sparingly...only for stuff that's practically disposable, since who knows what might happen to these services in the long run.

Posted by: Kirk on August 1, 2002 09:32 AM

I haven't used this service, but they also provide link statistics:

http://shorl.com

Good comment, Kirk. Shorter URLs today, no URLs tomorrow.

Posted by: Joshua Kaufman on August 1, 2002 04:34 PM

Antonio, sorry, I cannot profess my adoration for you.

Refer me to a *specific* script that would replace the functionality of TinyURL.com. A script with these qualities:
1) Is freeware.
2) Creates a short URL with a single text-entry box form.
3) Has optional security measures. e.g., I could offer the form as a public service, or allow only me to create short URLs.
4) Is so easy that even John could install it.

I would append an emoticon to #4, but that seems so tacky now. Oh how I miss the BBS years.

Posted by: Jack on August 1, 2002 06:49 PM

Item #4 is the real test. If I have to suffer at all, it must be worth it to me and the Webword community.

Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 1, 2002 08:36 PM

This really should be a feature of Moveable Type, if it isn't already. Outbound links should be database driven with short URLs based on ID numbers. It'd also give you easy access to click-through statistics.

Posted by: Jack on August 1, 2002 08:39 PM

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