7 ms·

This is really interesting. I suppose tiny url gets a kicked back from their ad network for this. I'm the creator of the URL shortener (T.LY) and a Link Unshort

This is really interesting. I suppose tiny url gets a kicked back from their ad network for this. I'm the creator of the URL shortener (T.LY) and a Link Unshortener tool. I spend most of my development time fighting bad actors. My goal is to have a legitimate competitor to bitly that people benefit from. We do not set any cookies on redirects but do use cookies for authentication for users. T.LY: https://t.ly/ https://t.ly/ Link Unshortener: https://linkunshorten.com/ https://linkunshorten.com/

samb1729 6y ago
It is a shame that T.LY displays only the footer without JavaScript enabled instead of degrading gracefully. Surely a plain HTML form that POSTs should suffice? I'm not sure how much work it would require for you to support this, but it would help cement your place as a good web actor if you're so inclined!
- daniellarusso 6y ago
  Can you instead use the meta refresh tag?
  - cphoover 6y ago
    Why use meta refresh tag over a http redirect: https://t.ly/home https://t.ly/home
  - TimLeland 6y ago
    Try curl https://t.ly/c55j https://t.ly/c55j The response is: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url='https://weatherextension.com/ https://weatherextension.com/'" />
  - Thorrez 6y ago
    samb1729 isn't talking about viewing shortened URLs. That works fine with javascript disabled. samb1729 is talking about viewing the the homepage of t.ly and creating shortened URLs. Side note, I think a 301/302/303/307/308 redirect is better than meta refresh (t.ly happens to use a 301 redirect + meta refresh).
    - TimLeland 6y ago
      Yes T.LY uses a 301 redirect which is better for SEO for the long url domain.
  - samb1729 6y ago
    Thorrez is correct in their interpretation of my comment, so I have nothing to add there. However given your username I'd like to let you know Cobra Kai season 3 recently released and is as silly as ever, in case you haven't already watched!
- TimLeland 6y ago
  Sorry about that. I honestly didn't think anyone browsed the web without javascript enabled. How common is that? We do offer a simple to use api that you could build on top of to shorten link. Also an extension that offers the ability to shorten a url in one click. API Docs: https://t.ly/docs/ https://t.ly/docs/ Extension: https://t.ly/extension https://t.ly/extension
  - Baeocystin 6y ago
    >I honestly didn't think anyone browsed the web without javascript enabled. How common is that? Not the person you asked, but speaking for myself, all the time. I have a javascript toggle I use several times a day, and leave it set to off as much as I can.
    - TimLeland 6y ago
      Interesting..How many sites work without javascript these days? Does google?
      - agreeablebut 6y ago
        Plenty, and you get used to either toggling or enable the specific scripts that need to run.
      - Baeocystin 6y ago
        More than you'd think, not as many as I'd hope. Easily 2/3rds of the ones I visit work, FWIW. Google works fine without javascript. Stunningly fast.
        oauea 6y ago
        > Google works fine without javascript. Stunningly fast. Until they block you for "suspicious behavior" after a few minutes of using it like that.
        6y ago
stanislavb 6y ago
Seems nice. I'm curious, how do you make money / stay in business? I couldn't find any paid options.
- 1f60c 6y ago
  Maybe this has changed since your comment, but I see three paid plans on the homepage.
  - TimLeland 6y ago
    Yes always been there. There are additional plans once you register for more short links and teams.
- TimLeland 6y ago
  Thank you! The site and extension are free to use to shorten links. I do offer the ability to upgrade starting at $5 a month which allows custom domains, ability to customize links, expire links based on date or clicks, private stats, ability to shorten links using the API (https://t.ly/docs/ https://t.ly/docs/). I also recently release a new feature called OneLinks that are great for social media bios. Here is an example on a OneLink: https://t.ly/TimLeland https://t.ly/TimLeland Extension Link: https://t.ly/extension https://t.ly/extension
  - hedora 6y ago
    Hmmm. My browser complained that you’re running three trackers on that site (google, cloudflare and digital ocean).
    - detaro 6y ago
      Are you seriously equating "has an image hosted on digitalocean" (which probably hosts the entire site) with "tracking"?
      - hedora 6y ago
legulere 6y ago
How is your project protected from being bought off by a bad actor?
cookiengineer 6y ago
> Link Unshortener: https://linkunshorten.com/ https://linkunshorten.com/ Well, Google Analytics and Googlesyndication are known to set the infamous PREF cookie (remember Snowden and PRISM?)... so I wouldn't recommend that website either if the whole point of this discussion is to avoid ad tracking cookies.
pgl 6y ago
> We do not set any cookies on redirects but do use cookies for authentication for users You also set cookies on every request apparently. What are they for? $ curl -Is https://t.ly/ | grep -ic set-cookie 3

samb1729 6y ago

It is a shame that T.LY displays only the footer without JavaScript enabled instead of degrading gracefully. Surely a plain HTML form that POSTs should suffice? I'm not sure how much work it would require for you to support this, but it would help cement your place as a good web actor if you're so inclined!

daniellarusso 6y ago
Can you instead use the meta refresh tag?
- cphoover 6y ago
  Why use meta refresh tag over a http redirect: https://t.ly/home https://t.ly/home
- TimLeland 6y ago
  Try curl https://t.ly/c55j https://t.ly/c55j The response is: <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url='https://weatherextension.com/ https://weatherextension.com/'" />
- Thorrez 6y ago
  samb1729 isn't talking about viewing shortened URLs. That works fine with javascript disabled. samb1729 is talking about viewing the the homepage of t.ly and creating shortened URLs. Side note, I think a 301/302/303/307/308 redirect is better than meta refresh (t.ly happens to use a 301 redirect + meta refresh).
  - TimLeland 6y ago
    Yes T.LY uses a 301 redirect which is better for SEO for the long url domain.
- samb1729 6y ago
  Thorrez is correct in their interpretation of my comment, so I have nothing to add there. However given your username I'd like to let you know Cobra Kai season 3 recently released and is as silly as ever, in case you haven't already watched!
TimLeland 6y ago
Sorry about that. I honestly didn't think anyone browsed the web without javascript enabled. How common is that? We do offer a simple to use api that you could build on top of to shorten link. Also an extension that offers the ability to shorten a url in one click. API Docs: https://t.ly/docs/ https://t.ly/docs/ Extension: https://t.ly/extension https://t.ly/extension
- Baeocystin 6y ago
  >I honestly didn't think anyone browsed the web without javascript enabled. How common is that? Not the person you asked, but speaking for myself, all the time. I have a javascript toggle I use several times a day, and leave it set to off as much as I can.
  - TimLeland 6y ago
    Interesting..How many sites work without javascript these days? Does google?
    - agreeablebut 6y ago
      Plenty, and you get used to either toggling or enable the specific scripts that need to run.
    - Baeocystin 6y ago
      More than you'd think, not as many as I'd hope. Easily 2/3rds of the ones I visit work, FWIW. Google works fine without javascript. Stunningly fast.
      - oauea 6y ago
        > Google works fine without javascript. Stunningly fast. Until they block you for "suspicious behavior" after a few minutes of using it like that.
        6y ago

stanislavb 6y ago

Seems nice. I'm curious, how do you make money / stay in business? I couldn't find any paid options.

1f60c 6y ago
Maybe this has changed since your comment, but I see three paid plans on the homepage.
- TimLeland 6y ago
  Yes always been there. There are additional plans once you register for more short links and teams.
TimLeland 6y ago
Thank you! The site and extension are free to use to shorten links. I do offer the ability to upgrade starting at $5 a month which allows custom domains, ability to customize links, expire links based on date or clicks, private stats, ability to shorten links using the API (https://t.ly/docs/ https://t.ly/docs/). I also recently release a new feature called OneLinks that are great for social media bios. Here is an example on a OneLink: https://t.ly/TimLeland https://t.ly/TimLeland Extension Link: https://t.ly/extension https://t.ly/extension
- hedora 6y ago
  Hmmm. My browser complained that you’re running three trackers on that site (google, cloudflare and digital ocean).
  - detaro 6y ago
    Are you seriously equating "has an image hosted on digitalocean" (which probably hosts the entire site) with "tracking"?
    - hedora 6y ago

legulere 6y ago

How is your project protected from being bought off by a bad actor?

cookiengineer 6y ago

> Link Unshortener: https://linkunshorten.com/ https://linkunshorten.com/ Well, Google Analytics and Googlesyndication are known to set the infamous PREF cookie (remember Snowden and PRISM?)... so I wouldn't recommend that website either if the whole point of this discussion is to avoid ad tracking cookies.

pgl 6y ago

> We do not set any cookies on redirects but do use cookies for authentication for users You also set cookies on every request apparently. What are they for? $ curl -Is https://t.ly/ | grep -ic set-cookie 3