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Twi.bz: the transparent URL shortener

50 points| jgrahamc | 17 years ago |twi.bz | reply

72 comments

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[+] mbreese|17 years ago|reply
You might end up having some trademark issues. For example, I could see Amazon not being too happy with the example link http://amazon.twi.bz/a.

The other thing that I see is that for a URL shortener, the above is 22 characters. What about if you were linking to a page here. For example, a link to this page is http://ycombinator.twi.bz/b. That's 27 characters.

If you are going to use a URL shortener (not that I'm suggesting that it is a good idea), why use one that is so verbose (relatively speaking)?

So, I'm not sure that there is a sweet spot here. You have people on one side that will never _ever_ use a URL shortener. On the other side, you have people that want the smallest link possible. There isn't much space in the middle (IMHO).

[+] arghnoname|17 years ago|reply
Not every usage for url shorteners is for twitter. I personally don't use twitter, but when I send long links to my mother via e-mail, she has trouble unless I use a url shrinking service. I'd much prefer one that shows the domain outside of extremely space constricted environments.
[+] jgrahamc|17 years ago|reply
The flip side for Amazon is that since it's clear that link is going to Amazon you are more likely to click on it which means more business for Amazon.
[+] decode|17 years ago|reply
A similar service is DecentURL. It generally has slightly longer URLs, but lets you put your own descriptive string in the link, in addition to adding the target's domain as the link's subdomain.

http://decenturl.com/

[+] benhoyt|17 years ago|reply
Thanks for the mention. :-)

Yes, the first thing I thought about twi.bz was, "I thought I already solved this with DecentURL" ... but I didn't quite. Looks like twi.bz is still about shortening URLs, whereas DecentURL is about making URLs decent.

Occassionally DecentURL will shorten a URL, but mainly it's intended to turn crazy random-numbers-and-letters addresses into nicely-named ones, while including the domain to make it somewhat "safe" (like twi.bz does).

[+] ryanv|17 years ago|reply
Are URL shorteners the new "hello world" app?
[+] Xichekolas|17 years ago|reply
Yes. When I'm dealing with a new language/framework, I usually make a URL shortener. It's simple enough to not take long, yet represents a more useful learning experience than simply 'Hello World'.
[+] pclark|17 years ago|reply
(when was the last time a hello world app got $2M in VC funding?)
[+] pclark|17 years ago|reply
I'd probably advertise yourself as: Twi.bz: the URL shortener that's transparent.
[+] boredguy8|17 years ago|reply
"Twi.bz: the transparent URL shrinker" (or shortener, if you're tied to that name) or

"Twi.bz: transparent and short URLs"

[+] jgrahamc|17 years ago|reply
Done. Thanks for the feedback.
[+] c3o|17 years ago|reply
A problem with using the original domain as a subdomain might be that for people not familiar with your service, these URLs look more like a phishing scam than a shortened URL, quite the opposite of the intended effect ("transparency"): Would you like to go to "http://paypal.twi.bz/c"?
[+] mustpax|17 years ago|reply
This is a cool idea. The host name in the URL goes a long way.

But there's still some trickery that could be used with redirection, e.g. "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google URLs and the like.

Also most malicious URLs will include the payload in the request parameters. You can still do a lot of damage with a GET request. (Ask Goolge bot if you don't believe me http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/746 )

What I'm trying to say is, there's no substitute for seeing a full URL. Especially for security conscious users like the HN crowd. For the average user though this might be enough information.

[+] paul_houle|17 years ago|reply
How come people aren't looking at this from the other angle: a twitter client could pre-preemptively look up URLs from url shortening services and annotate the tweets with the full URLs?

For that matter, how about a twitter client with a memory? One that keeps dossiers on the people you follow?

How about a twitter client that isn't written in AIR?

[+] marcusbooster|17 years ago|reply
It seems to me that url transparency is an issue for the clients to solve. Why can't Twitter (or whatever you're using) decode the short url and supply a javascript pop-up or something to tell you where its going?
[+] axod|17 years ago|reply
Agreed. It's not rocket science to follow any short urls and provide the full url in the title attribute.
[+] poutine|17 years ago|reply
The newly released Nambu Twitter client does just this. Does the decode inline though. Free too.
[+] mjr578|17 years ago|reply
What about removing all vowels except the first one? That way it is still shorter but transparent.
[+] trickjarrett|17 years ago|reply
I like that you include non .com suffixes but it does add length to the url. However it seems to me that some people may think you're trying to be malicious by using the domain.suffix as some spammers do. I'd suggest you do a replace on the . with a - or some other character.

I'm also keen to get an api or a bookmarklet :)

[+] pieter|17 years ago|reply
Yes, a bookmarklet on the main site would be very appreciated
[+] pclark|17 years ago|reply
quite a nasty bug if I try and shorten "omgponi.es" it says:

Sorry, twi.bz only understands http and https web addresses

I'd either make http:// be in the text field by default, or append http:// when a user enters a url.

[+] Jem|17 years ago|reply
Just being picky, but you say on page that

"Instantly you know you'll be taken to Amazon.com and that the link is safe to click on."

but further down, you say:

"twi.bz doesn't warrant that a link is safe"

Otherwise, I'm glad you implemented this idea. It's nifty :)

[+] lucumo|17 years ago|reply
I tried it on my start-ups domain. The result is interesting :)

"The web address you entered was http://rockingrackets.com/.

This has been converted to http://rockingrackets.twi.bz/a You can copy and paste it from here.

Your original web address had 26 characters, and the converted version has 30 characters."

I can see how this will always happen with the document root of any domain, so maybe you can refuse to shorten those, or make it a kind of in-your-face suggestion that it's silly to shorten a relatively short URL?

[+] jgrahamc|17 years ago|reply
And didn't it also say: "Since the original web address is, in this case, shorter than the twi.bz version it's better to use the original. "?
[+] blackguardx|17 years ago|reply
Your site gives me an error when I try to shorten "www.google.com"

It says that it wants an http:// in front.

You should probably fix that.

[+] barredo|17 years ago|reply
If i'm shortening this URL: amazon.com/permalink and amazon.ca/permalink i will get both times and url with: "amazon.twi.bz"

Wouldn't be better if you allow to put the TLD/ccTLD at first? amazonca.twi.bz/x OR amazoncom.twi.bz/x

We get transparency at the cost of a slightly longer URL. I think it's ok. And will recommend your domain to friends.

Thanks for the work

[+] ssn|17 years ago|reply
Do you consider releasing the URL mapping database? That would make sense in the context of transparency.
[+] jgrahamc|17 years ago|reply
You mean the mapping between twi.bz URLs and the real URLs? Yes, I absolutely plan to release the data. I'm just working on what the best way is, and I wanted to get some feedback.

It's worth knowing that I hacked this together in a two hour session very, very late last night. This is its public debut.

I want to be able to release the mapping and also the trending information.

What format would people prefer?

[+] seren6ipity|17 years ago|reply
I would suggest moving the "shorten" button to left. It is kind of obscured on the extreme right.
[+] barredo|17 years ago|reply
Idea. If you return the 'www.' instead of 'http://' at the beginning, you save 3 chars, and I think most of the Twitter clients and Twitter web create a link too.