Learn how to shorten a long web address with this TinyURL.com video tutorial. Design the encode and decode methods for the TinyURL service. There is no restriction on how your encode/decode algorithm should work. You just need to ensure that a. Learn more about URL shortening.Shorten, manage and track all or your URLs. Make free, custom short links and QR codes with tiny.cc. See some of our paid plans Lot’s of upgraded features and high volume usage. Special discount for tiny.cc users! Download Windows 10. Before updating, please refer to the Windows release information status for known issues to confirm your device is not impacted.
Type of site | URL shortening |
---|---|
Owner | TinyURL LLC |
Created by | Kevin Gilbertson |
Revenue | Subscription, Advertising |
Registration | Yes |
Launched | January 2002; 19 years ago[1] |
Current status | Active |
TinyURL is a URL shortening web service, which provides short aliases for redirection of long URLs. Kevin Gilbertson, a web developer, launched the service in January 2002[1] as a way to post links in newsgroup postings which frequently had long, cumbersome addresses. TinyURL was the first notable URL shortening service and is one of the oldest still currently operating.
Service[edit]
The TinyURL homepage includes a form which is used to submit a long URL for shortening. For each URL entered, the server adds a new alias in its hashed database and returns a short URL. According to the website, the shortened URLs will never expire.
TinyURL offers an API which allows applications to automatically create short URLs. This is done by simply reading the result returned from
tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url=URLENCODED_SOURCE_URL
.Short URL aliases are seen as useful because they are easier to write down, remember or distribute. They also fit in text boxes with a limited number of characters allowed. Some examples of limited text boxes are IRC channel topics, email signatures, microblogs (such as Twitter, which notably limits all posts to first 140 and later 280 characters), certain printed newspapers (such as .net magazine or even Nature), and email clients that impose line breaks on messages at a certain length.
Starting in 2008, TinyURL allowed users to create custom, more meaningful aliases. This means that a user can create descriptive URLs rather than a randomly generated address. For example,
https://tinyurl.com/wp-tinyurl
leads to the Wikipedia article about the website.Preview short URLs[edit]
To preview the full URL from the short TinyURL, the user can visit TinyURL first and enable previews as a default browser cookie setting or copy and paste the short URL into the browser address bar, and prepend the short
tinyurl.com/x
with preview.tinyurl.com/x
. Another preview feature is not well documented at the TinyURL site, but the alternative shortened URL with preview capability is also offered to shortcut creators as an option at the time of creation of the link.[2]Impact[edit]
Similar services[edit]
![Tinyurl/wlms2020 Tinyurl/wlms2020](/uploads/1/1/7/7/117793332/762013161.jpg)
The popularity of TinyURLs influenced the creation of at least 100 similar websites.[3] Most are simply domain alternatives while some offer additional features.
Tinyurl Claim Status
Twitter[edit]
People posting on Twitter often made extensive use of shortened URLs to keep their tweets within the service-imposed 140 character limit. Twitter used TinyURL until 2009, before switching to Bit.ly.[4] Currently, Twitter uses its own
t.co
domain for this purpose. Though Twitter has extended its limit to 280 characters, it automatically shortens links longer than 31 characters using its t.co
domain.Tinyurl/wlms2020
TinyURL-whacking[edit]
The TinyURL method of allocating shorter web addresses has inspired an exploration activity known as TinyURL-whacking. Random letters and numbers can be appended after the first forward slash
tinyurl.com/
, in an attempt to find and reveal interesting sites without finding and copying a previously known referrer's link.[1][5]See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ abcKatie Dean (March 16, 2004). 'Honey, I Shrunk the URL'. Wired. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
So the 24-year-old Web developer from Blaine, Minnesota, launched TinyURL.com in January 2002, a free site that converts huge strings of characters into more manageable snippets.
- ^'How to Preview Shortened URLs (TinyURL, bit.ly, is.gd, and more)'. 2009-04-11. Archived from the original on 2014-03-25. Retrieved 2014-05-30.
- ^90+ URL Shortening ServicesArchived 2008-08-30 at the Wayback Machine, Mashable.Com, 8 January 2008, page 84
- ^Weisenthal, Joe (May 6, 2009). 'Twitter Switches from TinyURL to Bit.ly'. Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 8, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
- ^New Scientist, vol. 179, issue 2404, 19 July 2003, page 84
Bitly
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TinyURL&oldid=1011068782'
tinyurl.com is an online service that will make web URLs shorter. If there are complicated and long web addresses, when you want to share them by mail or on social networks, the URL may look ugly. Here it comes TinyURL that will generate a shorter version of entered web address, that will work when somebody click on it.
From our tests, the URLs entered has been reduced with more than 50% than original. This service provides a “Open in new window” option that allows to test new URL to see if is working and an one click “Copy to clipboard” to actually copy your shorter URL and use it as you need.
Http://tinyurl.com
Is one of the first services of these type launched in 2002 and it offers API for web developers.