5 ms·

I'm curious, what's with the cruddy URLs? For eg: https://plus.google.com/113882113745075873153 https://plus.google.com/113882113745075873153 Why the gargantu

by balakk 15y ago

I'm curious, what's with the cruddy URLs? For eg: https://plus.google.com/113882113745075873153 https://plus.google.com/113882113745075873153 Why the gargantuan number? Yeah, it's in trial, but still..

heed 15y ago
plus.ly
- timmyd 15y ago
  http://gplus.to/ http://gplus.to/
seldo 15y ago
It's a strange irony that Google, the driving force behind the invention of SEO, often fail to bother with it themselves, even on extremely high-profile products. As noted, Google Profiles have meaningless, unguessable URLs: https://plus.google.com/112349855959838705650 https://plus.google.com/112349855959838705650 Items in the Chrome app store are similarly opaque: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aidgmjkfmbhldhnhkopojimkhhhcpenl https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aidgmjkfmbhldhnhko... (As are all Chrome extensions:) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ddngkjbldiejbheifcmnfmmfiniimbbg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ddngkjbldiejbheifc... YouTube videos have no title information at all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfQhfYA2cH8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfQhfYA2cH8 Orkut (a low blow I realize): http://www.orkut.com/Main#Profile?uid=16458042622225437726 http://www.orkut.com/Main#Profile?uid=16458042622225437726 News topics: http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&ncl=djUP_xBOC0jGztMr_kwVTwLB6qkjM&topic=h http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&... It confuses me.
- true_religion 15y ago
  It's not really surprising that Google doesn't care about SEO---after all they are the search engine.
- mtkd 15y ago
  I've not seen any evidence keyword URLs give any SEO benefit. If they once did, it doesn't appear to be the case now.
- vijaydev 15y ago
  About the chrome extension urls, the source they use to generate those hashes and some interesting trivia here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1882981/google-chrome-alphanumeric-hashes-to-identify-extensions http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1882981/google-chrome-alp...
- jaredmck 15y ago
  It's like google wants to remind you what search was like prior to their participation. Webmaster forums are particularly funny example of this style of design which is almost aggressively search-unfriendly.
toyg 15y ago
It's been used by googlers for more than a year already, so that's probably why the number is so high.
- pilif 15y ago
  even a company the size of google doesn't have 112349855959838705650 employees
  - kodisha 15y ago
    dude, that is not auto increment id in some database :)
    - pilif 15y ago
      that was my point.
kogir 15y ago
It prevents both information leakage (number of users/posts/etc), and enumeration. It could also contain routing information about where your data is actually stored behind the scenes, avoiding a directory lookup.
jannes 15y ago
That's your gmail account ID. It hasn't changed since you registered for gmail. I remember that the old Google profiles (before Google+ and before the Profiles relaunch) had an option to choose between a private and a public profile URL. The public version of the URL had your gmail username in it. The private one didnt, it had the your account ID in it. Apparrently they turned off the option for public profile URLs since Google+. So apparently these URLs are there for privacy reasons. Not everyone who knows your email address should be able to find your profile.
- dorkwagon 15y ago
  The option of having your username in the URL is still there, but it looks like the setting needs to be toggled again for the new profile scheme. Check near the bottom on https://profiles.google.com/me/about/edit/d https://profiles.google.com/me/about/edit/d . Edit: Strangely, the option shows up only sometimes when I click the edit button.
  - jamesbritt 15y ago
    Too funny. I tried to view that url on my G2 and got a page saying my browser was not supported.
pacomerh 15y ago
Maybe they want users to be searching for users and sell more ads, that's their main thing anyways.
Raphael 15y ago
I noticed that profiles.google.com vanity urls redirect to Plus.

by balakk 15y ago

heed 15y ago

plus.ly

timmyd 15y ago
http://gplus.to/ http://gplus.to/

seldo 15y ago

It's a strange irony that Google, the driving force behind the invention of SEO, often fail to bother with it themselves, even on extremely high-profile products. As noted, Google Profiles have meaningless, unguessable URLs: https://plus.google.com/112349855959838705650 https://plus.google.com/112349855959838705650 Items in the Chrome app store are similarly opaque: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aidgmjkfmbhldhnhkopojimkhhhcpenl https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aidgmjkfmbhldhnhko... (As are all Chrome extensions:) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ddngkjbldiejbheifcmnfmmfiniimbbg https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ddngkjbldiejbheifc... YouTube videos have no title information at all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfQhfYA2cH8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfQhfYA2cH8 Orkut (a low blow I realize): http://www.orkut.com/Main#Profile?uid=16458042622225437726 http://www.orkut.com/Main#Profile?uid=16458042622225437726 News topics: http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&ncl=djUP_xBOC0jGztMr_kwVTwLB6qkjM&topic=h http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&... It confuses me.

true_religion 15y ago
It's not really surprising that Google doesn't care about SEO---after all they are the search engine.
mtkd 15y ago
I've not seen any evidence keyword URLs give any SEO benefit. If they once did, it doesn't appear to be the case now.
vijaydev 15y ago
About the chrome extension urls, the source they use to generate those hashes and some interesting trivia here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1882981/google-chrome-alphanumeric-hashes-to-identify-extensions http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1882981/google-chrome-alp...
jaredmck 15y ago
It's like google wants to remind you what search was like prior to their participation. Webmaster forums are particularly funny example of this style of design which is almost aggressively search-unfriendly.

toyg 15y ago

It's been used by googlers for more than a year already, so that's probably why the number is so high.

pilif 15y ago
even a company the size of google doesn't have 112349855959838705650 employees
- kodisha 15y ago
  dude, that is not auto increment id in some database :)
  - pilif 15y ago
    that was my point.

kogir 15y ago

It prevents both information leakage (number of users/posts/etc), and enumeration. It could also contain routing information about where your data is actually stored behind the scenes, avoiding a directory lookup.

jannes 15y ago

That's your gmail account ID. It hasn't changed since you registered for gmail. I remember that the old Google profiles (before Google+ and before the Profiles relaunch) had an option to choose between a private and a public profile URL. The public version of the URL had your gmail username in it. The private one didnt, it had the your account ID in it. Apparrently they turned off the option for public profile URLs since Google+. So apparently these URLs are there for privacy reasons. Not everyone who knows your email address should be able to find your profile.

dorkwagon 15y ago
The option of having your username in the URL is still there, but it looks like the setting needs to be toggled again for the new profile scheme. Check near the bottom on https://profiles.google.com/me/about/edit/d https://profiles.google.com/me/about/edit/d . Edit: Strangely, the option shows up only sometimes when I click the edit button.
- jamesbritt 15y ago
  Too funny. I tried to view that url on my G2 and got a page saying my browser was not supported.

pacomerh 15y ago

Maybe they want users to be searching for users and sell more ads, that's their main thing anyways.

Raphael 15y ago

I noticed that profiles.google.com vanity urls redirect to Plus.